in a pickle (tenants, foreclosed, investment, mortgage)

[okaydorothy]

We have a house that we did have rented out, the tenants left and we refurbished the place. Now we dont know what to do ; do we rent it again ; we have advertised it in many places and no bites.
Or do we sell it ; there are 5 houses for sale on the street and ours would be the lowest price. It is empty, house next door is boarded up (foreclosed). I hate the thought of leaving it empty for another 5 months(it took us that long to redo it) or do I sign with a realtor and hope for the best? It is located on Long island.

Now if we sold it ; we are maybe thinking of buying two houses in PA ; they would be mortgage free as the house on Long Island has no mortgage. We like the idea or owning more real estate for the long term investment.

can anyone shed any more ideas or opinions?
Thanks
dorothy

[stevep]

Where do you live..... PA or Long Island and do you have any other properties in either of those areas?

[CAugust]

It all depends what YOU want to do. What would be more profitable for you in the long run? Selling and buying two others, or just continue to rent this one out? If you want out, I would say just sell it. Think about what it will be worth in 5 years, how are rents int he area, will they continue? Lots to think about, but without specifics, its impossible to tell you.

[RoaminRed]

How much would you be renting it out for? Could you describe it a little and tell me the general area where it is please?

[njkate]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

We have a house that we did have rented out, the tenants left and we refurbished the place. Now we dont know what to do ; do we rent it again ; we have advertised it in many places and no bites.
Or do we sell it ; there are 5 houses for sale on the street and ours would be the lowest price. It is empty, house next door is boarded up (foreclosed). I hate the thought of leaving it empty for another 5 months(it took us that long to redo it) or do I sign with a realtor and hope for the best? It is located on Long island.

Now if we sold it ; we are maybe thinking of buying two houses in PA ; they would be mortgage free as the house on Long Island has no mortgage. We like the idea or owning more real estate for the long term investment.

can anyone shed any more ideas or opinions?
Thanks
dorothy

That may be one of the reasons you aren't getting any bites on a renter

[DavePautsch]

So many questions before anyone could give you a good answer:

- How long can you afford for it to go "unrented"
- Do you live in NY or PA; and where would you prefer to have investment property in an ideal world?
- Before you consider "selling" - Have you considered a 1031 Exchange instead of a straight "sale." This would allow you to defer the capital gains taxes as you roll the money into subsequent investment properties. This is complicated and you NEED to get professionals involved upfront because it is easy to take the wrong steps and lose out!
- Can you get sufficient rental income from the existing property (given the character of the neighborhood) to consider it a "worthwhile" investment?
- In other words, by turning one rental in Long Island into 2 rentals in PA, do you increase your cash flow? Your appreciation potential?

On the surface, it sounds like a 1031 exchange from the existing property into 2 new properties in better neighborhoods, closer to you, easier to manage, and with better potential for appreciation would be the way I'd go.

Good luck.

[okaydorothy]

We live in Long island and have two other houses here ; the one we live in and a different rental property. That was vacant for 5 months and we got a tenant there last week.

The house that is vacant and refurbished ; The rent would be between $1600 and $1900 per month; that is the going rate. It woudl sell for about $315,000 or so. That would be the lowest price of all of the houses that are currently for sale. Eventually we are considering moving to PA fulltime ; when our kids are grown ; they are only 9 & 7 now. In an ideal world we would love to have a vacation property in pa that we would turn into a retirement home. We do have an accountant so I would defiantely consider the 1031 route.
The foreclosure only happened about 2 weeks ago. We probably could afford for it to go unrented for about 6 months. So maybe it would be better to put it for sale, then once the summer rolls around if it is not sold, place it for rent again.

Thanks so much for any opinions. It is so hard to know what is the right thing to do.
dorothy

[Brandon Hoffman]

Why not put it up for sale and for rent and see what happens first?

[palmcoasting]

We live in Long island

Oh, come now. All us Long Islanders know we live ON Long Island, lol.
Where are you? I'm originally from Suffok County, the Shoreham area and then lived for years in the surrounding towns of it.
All of your questions depend on whether you've had it with having to refurbish the place when the tenants move or are you making enough money not to worry about it. You're local enough to watch over it. But, you want a place in Pa...so follow what you were thinking... put it up for sale and if that doesn't work in a certain period of time, rent it out again.

[stevep]

If you're waiting for your kids to be grown, I'm assuming that means out of the house/college so that wouldn't take place for another 11 years. Unless you have someone that you can trust that will manage properties for you in PA for the next 11 years, I wouldn't look to purchase rental properties in PA.