What to do with my townhome, looking for suggestions

[Brian Compton]

Hi, BP

Looking for suggestions on what I should do with my townhome that I'm renting out. My tenant put in her 60 day notice today.

I purchased it as my personal residence in 2008. Lived in it until 2014 and it's been rented to same (awesome) tenant for two years.

1588sqft, 2 bed w/ loft, 3 bath

It's in Concord, less than 10 minutes from Concord Mills.

It's in great condition, great location, have had very few minor issues, it cash flows a few hundred bucks a month, but I just don't want to find another tenant (or be a landlord). Debating on cashing out.

I owe $110k on it. It would sell for $130s.

Interested to hear what others would do. Open to suggestions. Thanks!

[Pearce G.]

If you're netting ~$300/mo on ~$25K equity, your return is somewhere in the mid-teens.  Hard to beat that, especially after transaction costs to sell the townhome and buy something else.

But if you're just not into landlording, I get it.

Most obvious answer is to get a property manager.  It will cut in to your return, and you still need to manage the property manager, but it would allow you to continue building equity without the hassle of landlording.

Quick story:  I bought my first house in 1988 for 110K with 10% down.  Lived there 2 years and sold it for 120K.  I was young and single and didn't really have to sell it, but I thought I was brilliant for doubling my money in 2 years.  I looked it up recently, and that house is worth about 430K.  If I had kept it as a rental, it would be paid off and cash flowing at least $1500/mo.  In hindsight, it was about a half million dollars in lost opportunity.