Is Renting right for our situation or should we sell?

[Scott Hawkins]

Hey All! 

New to bigger pockets, but looking to get the communities input. A friend suggested I ask the community. We have a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house in the Arden Hills area with a garage that can fit 4 cars! We're potentially thinking of renting out our current house worth 400k and could rent out for 2.8k, with 160k left on the mort. and have a property manager [interest rate of 3.875%]. Our current house is picture perfect, we put 60K into the house over the 7 years have lived there and fixed everything (If we sell we could get top dollar right now). We just bought another house for 540k and currently have enough to put down 35%, however, the monthly payment is still 2.8k on the new house (ouch). I'm the main breadwinner making 70% of the 9k income. Our monthly expenses are roughly 5.5k not including the mortgage payment of our current house $1,450. We also have a second kid coming later this year. Are we potentially taking on too much risk if we rent? Are we overthinking it? I really appreciate the communities input. 

[Denver McClure]

Hi @Scott Hawkins, I'd need more data to give you a better recommendation, but from what I can tell I would probably offload your Arden Hills house as it may not be a strong enough rental to hold during a time that your budget may be crunched with a second child. Just because the expected rent is higher than the current mortgage doesn't necessarily mean you won't have negative cash flow each year after factoring in vacancy, PM fees, maintenance, and capex. I would run a report on that house as if you just bought it today and evaluate it as a new rental opportunity. Feel free to reach out if you need any help!