Put Yourself In My Shoes

[Chase Kimbrell]

Put yourself in my shoes. I just got a new house hack after getting out of the military and moving back to my home state, Alaska. It’s a duplex with tenants already included. I have a house hack back in New Mexico which was also a duplex, and it’s now fully rented out. I just lost my job last month, and I’ve got a new one. I’ve decided to sell the house down in New Mexico, and even though I wasn’t planning on it, it seems like a good idea now. Zillow estimates that I have about $110,000 in equity, and my realtor back in Albuquerque thinks we’ll start lower than that because he’s under the impression that the Zestimate is a little high. Conservatively pricing it, we’re listing it for $90,000 over what I owe on it, and I believe I could get about $72,000 after all fees and dues payed. My realtor says that it’s common that buyers in that market are offering more than asking price.

So if you were in my shoes with $72,000 or so, what would you do? I have my own idea of what I would do, but I want to know everyones’ thoughts. I’m in Fairbanks, AK, and it tends to have a decent amount of tourists that come up in the summers, and Air BnBs seem profitable. I’m most familiar with long term, but I’m considering medium term rentals too. Anything is on the table. My goal is to retire as soon as possible, and $40,000 a year cashflow, for example, would pay my bills. Let me know what you think.