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Updated almost 6 years ago,
Sell or Rent Bay Area Primary home
I am thinking of moving out of my primary home in bay area to a second home (that I already have). The current primary home if I rent it out is in top schools and desired location but will NOT be cashflow positive. I also do not have lot of equity since I bought it only couple of years back and home has gone up but agent commissions when I sell will eat all the profits and I would have hardly anything left. If I go for interest only loan, the rent would equal my mortgage (so the tenant pays all of my interest only mortgage) but I still have to pay property taxes. So question is should I rent and wait for market to appreciate (I can take 7 year ARM and in theory wait for that time) or should I sell it now, eliminate the risk and take cash I had put in ? The advantage of keeping home:
1) Can get the low locked in interest only rate (3.625 for 7/1) since its primary today
2) Since its primary I can keep it for 3 more years on rent and still get tax free gains.
Advantage of selling :
1) Take the risk out, not burn property tax money every year. But considering CA is non-recourse is it really a risk ?
2) Potentially invest in other markets (but for that i don't necessarily need this money in short term) or another bay area home (wait for market to drop and buy a smaller investment property (condo/townhome) in bay area with it.
What do the experts here think ?