Hi, Mimi:

You've already received a lot of great ideas and suggestions. One I did not see mentioned that you might want to consider (that is, if you finally do decide you need to sell) is to perhaps offer the home with a "lease to own" option. There are some good reasons to keep this thought in mind: 1) There are many prospective homeowners out there who make good money, but because of some financial mishaps in the past, they're still trying to raise their credit scores. So they don't yet qualify for a conventional or FHA loan. The good thing about leasing to own is that the prospective homeowner will be more likely to take care of the home 'as if it were their own,' because it might just be in the future; 2) It will provide some cash flow, just in case you wouldn't be able to handle making two mortgage payments. I'm sure there are other good reasons, but those are the two that readily come to mind.

I wish you success with whatever decision you make.

Ruth

Mimi, this question comes up many times owning a home a short time and wondering if you should sell or rent? There are some great answers already. One idea that no one mentioned is interest rate that you bought at and what are rates today. You need to talk to a lender to see if you can qualify for both loans if you were to rent and buy? You could look at selling your house for a loss with selling fees but the interest rate drop might makes sense to sell and buy or rent and buy. With the reduced price that you sell for, and the lower interest rates who knows, it might make the numbers work for you with the rates down so low? Best wishes to you.


Tom Inglesby, Broker
RE/MAX Equity Group Inc
503-319-9035

Mimi,

You might find it helpful to log in to http://www.rentometer.com to see what other homes in your exact area are renting for to see what kind of rent you could expect to get for your current home. After owning your home for just over a year, I would also recommend that you take a well documented CMA to your CPA and ask her/him for his advice on the tax consequence of selling now (at either a loss or a break even) or of turning your residence into a rental.
Additionally, I would recommend that you explore with a quality lender whether or not you could qualify for another purchase loan if you choose to rent your current home. Would you be able to offset your debt servicing with the income from the rental?
The current market for selling a property does not offer an easy "sell or rent" scenario. It is challenging to sell right now. This is a big decision, and I think the tax consequences need to be considered to make an unregretable decision as you go foreward.

Karla Divine, Broker
503-819-6923

Hi Mimi,

Thank you for your question, it's a challenging one since you've owned this home for such a short amount of time.

It truly depends on the current value of your home. That can be determined by a professional CMA, provided as a courtesy in preparation of listing a home. This will give you a value based on current market sales of homes similar to yours in your location. I have another automatic tool that is known as a property investment profile which will email you a report of real estate data specific to your neighborhood with listed properties, pending properties, sold properties, graphs showing sales trend and more. Let me know if you are interested in receiving that by contacting me directly via the contact information below. This will help you determine if its best to wait or if it would be to your benefit to sell.

If you are unable to recoup your purchase price and at least break even it may be better to wait this market out. The good news is that pending sales are on the rise, which means buyers are on the move. The price ou indicate may be indicative of a tough sale-depending on where the home is and the condition of the home. This can all be taken into consideration during the CMA process.

If I can be of service please give me a call.

Sincerely,
June Lizotte, Real Estate Broker
Providing REAL Service
Prudential NW Properties
6400 SE Lake Rd., Suite 200
Portland, OR 97222
503-310-8032
jlizotte@prunw.com

I don't believe the rental market is going anywhere. You should be able to rent out continually without any issue, just have to decide if it is worth the headache of renting. SE is a great place to live!

Mimi...

If you sell and take a loss ...which is likely....that is ok as long as you can make it up on the other home. And you probably will.

If you have a down payment for the new home in SE and are not worried about your home getting damaged or destroyed via a rental than rent it and wait. The market here in 24 month looks much better due to the UGB and all of that.

Personally.... I would try and sell.
Your sort of a 50/50% opportunity here and it is a tough call.

Best of luck;

Dirk