Bay Area house: sell or rent out?

Apr 24 77 Comments

Need to move out of Bay Area in a few months, we have a house that we are not sure whether sell or rent out.

Monthly rate in my area is around $3500, mortgage and property tax is around $4500.

It makes more sense to sell from the numbers, but we are not sure how long we will stay in the new city. We might come back to Bay Area in a couple of years, so keeping the house makes the come back easier. On the flip side, I have read horror stories about being a landlord, so not sure about all that stress on top of negative cash flow.

Blind tax: house hold tc 700k

193 PARTICIPANTS SELECT ONLY ONE ANSWER
VOTE VIEW RESULT
77

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
  1. TOP
  2. RECENT
  3. OLD
 TOP 77 Comments
  • Meta
    metaverse-

    Go to company page Meta

    metaverse-
    Sell. What's the point of keeping negative cash flow asset ? Also you will have to pay for repair, maintenance, property management etc that will reduce profit further.

    If you know for sure you will come back and can sustain if you lose your job in the mean time, then keep and rent out
    Apr 24 10
    • Juniper / Eng
      Zoejv39j

      Go to company page Juniper Eng

       Zoejv39j
      Coinbase: As I mentioned, folks who have already bought and locked in past prices which were all lower than the present ones would have no reason to leave. They don’t need to upgrade because till just a few years ago, folks could easily get larger homes for prices that were very much doable. This is exactly why inventory doesn’t get freed up. And with the supply issues in building new homes, the inventory challenge will only get worse and prices will continue to stay high. Minor corrections may happen due to interest rate changes but a major crash is unlikely. Even if a major crash does happen, in the long term, it’ll recover and continue to reach new highs just like the recovery from 2008 and the subsequent record breaking price increases.

      The only problem with 2008 type crashes is that many folks are unable to hold the home even if they want to because of job losses. But if you’re lucky enough to keep your job or find a new one soon enough, that’s a significant advantage you gain over many others.
      Apr 24
    • Google
      remoteGglr

      Go to company page Google

      remoteGglr
      1, 2 and 5 are all opinions and not facts. They are also pretty garbage opinions if you ask the 50,000 something engineers that moved out of the Bay Area between April 2020 and now.
      Juniper is surely the old uncle enjoying evil Prop 13.
      Apr 25
  • Meta
    rnorm

    Go to company page Meta

    rnorm
    4500 -3500 is not the right way to look at this.
    Your cost to ownership is:
    4500 - 3500 - principal portion of 4500 mortgage payment + expenses in property repair / management
    Apr 24 3
    • Google
      !blind!

      Go to company page Google

      !blind!
      For 3,500 rent, where is the rental income tax? Marginal tax could be 50% for those with 700k in CA.
      Apr 24
    • OP
      I think the mortgage interest and property tax can be deducted, so for $3500, about $1000 is subject to income tax. But good point in case, that’s something should be added to the formula
      Apr 24
  • It’s like $24k difference plus taxes and expenses. If you’re coming back in two years it’s a no brainer to keep it.
    Apr 24 2
  • PwC
    Mahomes_1

    Go to company page PwC

    Mahomes_1
    2 questions to the OP. 1. Is your home in a good school district ? 2. Can you stomach negative cash flows for the time you are out of Bay Area ? If you answered yes to both then hold. If you answered no to anyone of them then sell
    Apr 24 5
  • If you check out of Hotel California, can you afford to come back?
    Apr 24 0