To Sell or Rent our condo

Hi Ladies,

I could use some advice. DH and I have had our condo on the market for a month and a half. We dropped the price but are not happy with the amount of interest. We are prepared to drop the price again but after the next price drop we feel we would just be taking such a huge hit that it might make more sense rent it out for a while, break even as far as paying the mortgage each month and sell it later on. Does anyone have any advice on this? Or advice on being a landlord?

Thanks in advance. I am feeling so discouraged.

Re: To Sell or Rent our condo

we tried to sell our condo in feb. of 2009 - it did not sell within a month or so - so we listed in for rent - it has been reneted for over a year to the same person who we found through a realtor

in terms of costs and write offs - you can write of fthe interest, mainetnance fees, taxes, home owner's insurance, repairs, and travel to location to cehck (ours is out od state), management company fees, finder's fees, etc - against the rent receieved - mortgage payment to principal cannot be written off against rent payment


do note that you can take a passive loss - if expenses are higher then rent received - but there is a cap on passive losses - don't know exact numbers for that - also loss for months not rented

check your state for rules on deposits and when you can charege interest on a late payment

for us payments are not late until after 30 days

our tenant is planning on staying for another year and a half - and we'll see what we will do with the condo then

Re: To Sell or Rent our condo

Thank you SO much for replying! I think we are just a bit nervous...but at this point we can't justify taking a huge hit if we can break even in hopes of selling later on, ya know?

Re: To Sell or Rent our condo

Honestly a month and a half on the market for a condo is not long at all...we have ours listed for sale and have been told it could be as long as 9+ months. It is totally discouraging but I think the market and pool of buyers is very unpredictable nowadays.

We want out and want a house very badly--but can't justify losing $30K. I'm dying to start a family but I'd rather squeeze a baby into our 1BR apt over setting us up for financial trouble down the road. Remember, even if you rent out your unit, it is very hard to evict someone if they end up not paying rent and then you might be completely screwed.

I'm not trying to scare you, you just have to be prepared for all outcomes.

Re: To Sell or Rent our condo

we were going to rent our coop but the board wants a fee every year, and they forced us to go back to our mortgage company to tell them we are renting out. now mort company wants us to REFI for higher rate.

If I were you, I would rent out the condo! I wouldn't worry about the tenant not paying rent, I don't know anyone that personally happened to. the good thing, even if the value doesn't increase, the tenant will pay your mortgage

Message edited 10/4/2010 12:18:27 PM.