Should I Rent or Sell my property?

[Zach Carner]

My wife and I will be stationed in Washington next year. We currently own a house in Charleston, SC and we were thinking about selling it. However I've been hearing a lot about real estate investing and renting our property is a great idea. I would love other input because it seems pretty daunting. Our house was bought for $270,000 and is estimated at $308,000 right now. The neighborhood is brand new and upcoming in a nice area.

I've reached out to a few property management companies to see what they would charge. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated and what sort of stuff we should weigh when making this decision, thanks!

[Doug Spence]

Originally posted by @Zach Carner:

Thank you everyone! This helps a lot! I have a few more details about our situation and follow up questions.

I put everything into the BP rental calculator and it came out to cash flow about $506/month. This sounds like a good idea to hold this property and determine if we want to sell later on?

Also for a VA loan if I don't put a 20% down payment will I have to pay PMI?

I am still researching the VA vs FHA loan when moving to Washington to determine what's better. I would like to buy our next house in WA, live there for 3 years, then rent it out when we move. Which loan would be best for that situation?

Thanks again!!

Assuming you have your full VA entitlement, I would purchase a 2-4 unit property with your VA loan up in Washington, and rent out the units you don't live in. This is called 'house hacking' and its an extremely powerful wealth building tool when combined with the VA loan. I'm using this strategy right now in San Diego. I'm happy to discuss more if you want. There are lots of active duty military on these forums who also invest in real estate (myself included), so you're in good company!

Best of luck and keep us updated on your progress.