Should I liquidate my Seattle properties while I can? Existential crisis

[Yesenia Charles]

So I posted this in reddit but got slim to none responses and figured I should post it where the experts live. Also first time poster! Bear with this long existential post, and here it goes.

I'm a 30 odd year old human who bought a few properties in the sub 3% era these past few years. I've already sold a condo in Nashville because dealing with the HOA was a hassle, but tenants were okay. Lesson learned with that - Better investigate HOA, avoid flood zones, prob should have just paid the condo in full , maybe should have gotten a property manager? In any case, the moment I sold I had 0 regrets. I doubled my investment and now have 1 less weekly text to wake up to! I was netting $500 a month but the way I saw it was I'd pay $500/month to NOT get a call from a scammy HOA trying to nickle and dime me for random violations. When the majority property owners sit and run the board, things are sketchy, which I found out six months in. Long short I never paid them a dime for said violations, but even right before closing they tried to fine me for my tenants AC unit....Phew, out of that mess!

So having sold Nashville I'm left with my Seattle stuff. I'm left with three but one is my primary home that I love dearly and can see myself renting and dealing with the hassle. So we'll focus on the other two. So some context as to why I am looking to cash out now rather than take these things to the grave . I like to travel and want to live for today. I can’t help but think I’m running out of my youth to do physically taxing things. I'm out of the country 8 months out of the year and more if I didn't feel obligated to check in on stuff and enjoy amazing Seattle summers. I recently quit my job to "do me" and boy has it been amazing. The goal would be to travel a little more full-time and maybe live in Europe or Latin America. So recently, when looking for advice on “cash out on equity" I see a lot of people saying how they don't want to lose on taxes or will die with these properties and the low interest rates, or that they intend to pass this on to their kids.  I don't believe in generational wealth, and I don’t intend on having kids but even then it seems like the traditional way of doing things is to wait to reap the benefits of ultimate cash flow and equity when I’m 60!? When I’m old, tired, and miserable is when I would probably spend less of my money.

What I’m looking to sell this year:

Downtown condo off Pike Place - HOA dues went up 30% last year and 6% this year. This was a mix of MTR and STR, 2023 broke even and I anticipate the same for 2024. And fear of HOA increases makes it a no brainer for me. Sure , when Amazon is return to office full time and the convention center picks up more events I'm sure this will have it's moment of glory but I think this ran it's course and I don't feel attached to this. Listing in April.

Bread winner is my Beacon hill SFH and my first baby purchased in 2020:

I saw this and was immediately drawn to it because it has a fully loaded basement that I rented to offset my mortgage. I initially bought this to house hack and never thought of this as a long term RE land lording gig, but this house has worked wonders. Now that I've moved to my permanent home this house nets $2200 after mortgage, taxes, insurance. The tenants pay on time and are family members so they're in there for a long time however, I don't think they take good care of the home and fear that $hit is going to hit the fan and is going to cost me a year or two worth of all that net income and headaches. And while I don't get bothered by them much, I still don't like getting the occasional text to tell me that somethings not working, which they end up fixing anyway. I am not convinced property management won't text me either because I would likely have to approve anything. I've dealt with property management for my STR and I loved it, but that was a different ball game and the property isn't a home from the 50s that probably took a beating from it's old owner. Also, the house has 9 tenants in it! That's a lot of wear and tear, I think I'm being realistic that lots of usage on sewage, water, in general is only going to wear this out even more.

Because I lived in this for 2 years in the last five, I can tap into the 250K tax free gain. After taxes, commissions, and fees I think it can get 220K, but I’ll say 200K to be conservative. What would I do if I sold? Well, all of my current stock in the last five years has been stress free, LIQUID, and has gained significantly. With the exception of my beacon house, had I spent all of the money from my other two investments in the stock market instead I think I would have the same gain with 0 stress. I still believe in RE but would rather buy something outright, avoid liability with a mortgage in my name, and avoid Seattle landlord laws. That 200K in the S&P could have made ~40K this year hassle free.

So here’s where I need your help. I need to hear from people who’ve taken the approach to RE where they make their gain and cash out while they can without being attached to the interest rate or a home.  Or I need to be convinced why I should I keep it longer. For an extra possible 50K?  Why do I think it’s a no brainer to cash out while others may think it’s ludacris to walk away from this interest rate, mortgage pay down, and cash flow? I kinda want my money now while I can enjoy it. I’m 80% convinced to sell but that other 20% has me running numbers all day that make sense... until that unknown catastrophic incident were to happen…

So, as my only post on BP…I seek your guidance.

 I figure this is the year to sell, while I’m on sabbatical I can spend the sweat equity to get things listing ready. The last thing I want to do is deal with a catastrophic issue while I’m galavanting across the globe or have to drop everything because I’ve decided I had enough. I’d love to have a trip where I don’t think if my phone is off silence in case a tenants or a PM calls me for something urgent.