{"id":19009,"date":"2012-02-17T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T21:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=19009"},"modified":"2012-02-17T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T21:19:13","slug":"reader-question-sell-now-or-rent-it-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/17\/reader-question-sell-now-or-rent-it-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader Question: Sell Now, or Rent It &#038; Wait?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I received the following email from a reader:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I am relocating out of the country and trying to understand if it is better for me to sell the house now or rent it for a few years and then sell.<\/p>\n<p>I bought the house 7 years ago and I think I can sell it for about the price that I bought it for. I have about 10% equity in the house.<\/p>\n<p>If I were to rent, the rent I get will be about $350 per month short of mortgage, insurance, property taxes. Plus there may be property management fees and other expenses.<\/p>\n<p>I had made up my mind to sell,  but today someone pointed me at Case-Shiller forecast that the seattle area housing market will be at 2007 levels by 2014. That will be about 40% increase from today\u2019s value and is certainly tempting.<\/p>\n<p>What would the experts recommend? Do you have any rent vs sell spreadsheet calculators? Would appreciate any pointers!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don&#8217;t have any rent vs. sell calculators yet.  That&#8217;s a great idea though, and I&#8217;ll see what I can come up with.<\/p>\n<p>As for your specific situation, I would recommend that you sell now.  Here&#8217;s why:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prices may be close to the bottom, but they\u2019ll probably bump along the bottom for <em>years<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/10\/2012-the-year-of-crappy-housing-selection\/\" title=\"2012: The Year of Crappy Housing Selection\">Inventory is terrible right now<\/a> and sales are increasing, so if you clean your home up and price it right, it will most likely sell quickly.<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re losing $350 every month (more in between tenants), that&#8217;s money down the drain.<\/li>\n<li>Long-distance landlording is a pain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to maximize your take-home on the sale, look into an alternative brokerage like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redfin.com\/sell-a-home\/why-redfin-is-better\" title=\"Redfin: Sell\">Redfin<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/walawrealty.com\/sellers\/\" title=\"WaLaw: Sellers\">WaLaw<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.findwell.com\/sell-home-with-findwell\" title=\"Findwell: Sell\">Findwell<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.500realty.net\/selling.php\" title=\"$500 Realty: Selling\">500 Realty<\/a> <em>(disclosure: Tim works for Redfin, WaLaw is a current Seattle Bubble advertiser, and Findwell and 500 Realty are both former advertisers)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know where you saw a forecast that local prices &#8220;will be at 2007 levels by 2014.&#8221;  That&#8217;s laughable.  Almost as good as <a href=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/15\/friday-flashback-why-second-guess-forbes-moodys\/\" title=\"Friday Flashback: Why Second-Guess Forbes &#038; Moody\u2019s?\">Forbes&#8217; 2006 prediction<\/a> that the median home price in the Seattle area would hit $600,000 by 2016.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 5px auto; width: 600px; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/economycom_seattle_forecast-Updated-2011-11.png\" title=\"Seattle-Area Home Prices: Forbes vs. Reality\" rel=\"lightbox[19009]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/economycom_seattle_forecast-Updated-2011-11-600x435.png\" style=\"border: 0;\" title=\"Seattle-Area Home Prices: Forbes vs. Reality - Click to enlarge\" alt=\"Seattle-Area Home Prices: Forbes vs. Reality\" width=\"600\" height=\"435\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Seriously, if you&#8217;re moving out of the country, it&#8217;s time to cut your losses.  Holding out hope that prices will improve in a few years is a fool&#8217;s errand and will just cost you even more money in the long run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I received the following email from a reader: I am relocating out of the country and trying to understand if it is better for me to sell the house now or rent it for a few years and then sell. I bought the house 7 years ago and I think I can sell it for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[206],"tags":[89,9,842],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-19009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-forbes","tag-reader_question","tag-sell-or-rent"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reader Question: Sell Now, or Rent It &amp; Wait? \u2022 Seattle Bubble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/17\/reader-question-sell-now-or-rent-it-wait\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Reader Question: Sell Now, or Rent It &amp; Wait? \u2022 Seattle Bubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"I received the following email from a reader: I am relocating out of the country and trying to understand if it is better for me to sell the house now or rent it for a few years and then sell. 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