Investor · Wakefield, MA · Member since 2016 · 107 posts · 71 votes
My wife and I have recently begun looking into flipping properties, to the point that I have liquidated two retirement accounts to fund this endeavor. One of my biggest assets towards this end is a two-unit multi that I purchased in late 2014. Here are the particulars:
The house will need a new roof within the next two years I am living in a different state as the property The rental market is solid, with Yale, Yale hospitals and a Coast Guard base nearby I lived in the house from Dec. 2014 - Sept. 2017, allowing us to take a tax-free profit I do not have enough equity in the house for a HELOC, and probably won't for another year
Am I being shortsighted here? Any sale proceeds would go a long way towards adding a cushion towards our flipping endeavor and/or allowing us to take on a bigger project.
Also, 1031 is probably out of the question as I may want to use the funds to eventually buy a primary residence for the family.
There isn't one right answer here. If your ROI on that roughly 40k will be better on the flips than on holding, then you have a good financial reason to sell.
However, it isn't all about finances. It could be that you want to sell to not have a big cap ex looming over your head (pun intended) or because it isn't in your strategic goals. Those are also legit reasons to sell. In business they talk about firing bad clients. This could be a case of firing (not literally, please) a property that is bad for you, good for someone else.
@Amanda G. Yup, all things I have considered. The more I think about it the more that it becomes apparent I want to sell. This was a house hack for my wife and myself, and I never saw myself leaving the state. One job change later and now I see it with a different set of eyes.
@Brandon Yeager Thanks for weighing in. Made the decision to list it. My biggest fear is being short sighted but at the same time, a property manager for one property doesn't make sense, and landlording from a distance has always made me uneasy.
Plus, that extra 25-30K could be a huge boon for us.