Selling My Rental and Regretting It

[Amanda Krasovskiy]

Bought a duplex in Tacoma 3 years ago at 253,000. We haven’t done anything to it besides have it rented out and let it pay for itself... we’re now in the process of selling it for 385,000.

We’re a young couple in our 20s, not really knowing what we’re doing. We bought because someone told us it would be a good idea, and, it was. Now that we’re selling, I’m not feeling so confident about this decision being a good one. Any advice?

[Dave Foster]

@Amanda Krasovskiy, listen to your gut.  A lot of what you're feeling is the unsettling "great unknown".  Any survival manual will tell you that if you're lost in the woods and don't know where you're going - stay put, stop walking sit down and take a nap..  Otherwise you'll waste energy and end up walking in circles.  

If you're under contract then the ship has sailed and you're stuck.  But if not then I'd be a huge advocate of leaving that property right where it is.  Make your move to the East Coast (BTW it's great out here as long as you're south of Interstate 4).  Learn the area so you can make informed choices about where to re-deploy your capital.  Then once you know where . you want to buy and what you want to buy you can then sell the property back west.  

Doing it this way let's you purchase better.  It also lets you do a 1031 exchange so the $20K plus in taxes can be used for your benefit not the governments.  And it let's you take advantage for a while longer of the support infrastructure you've put together out there.  It is a whole lot more efficient to let your systems continue to operate without you for a while  than to set up a new system too hastily with not enough forethought.