Sell or Rent? Seeking Advice on My Las Vegas Property

[George Cecil]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on whether I should sell or rent out my primary residence in Las Vegas, as we are about to relocate for work. We purchased it using a VA loan with 0% down, and our total mortgage payment is $3,000/month. I'm estimating additional monthly expenses as follows:

• Pool maintenance: $200

• HOA: $37

• Solar: $200

• Repairs/expense reserves (20% of mortgage): $600

That brings the total estimated monthly cost to around $4,037.

The issue is that rental comps in the area (without pools) average around $2,100/month, and there aren’t many rental comps with pools to compare against. Based on that, renting would result in a significant monthly loss, even if I could charge a bit more for the pool.

The house is about 10 years old, but we’ve already taken care of major maintenance items:

• New AC/furnace

• Replastered pool with quartz & redone decking

• All new appliances

If we sold now, we estimate breaking even or possibly taking a slight loss. However, we are bullish on the local market, just not enough to justify covering the potentially large rent-to-expense gap in hopes of appreciation when that money could be deployed elsewhere.

I’d love to hear your insights. Would you hold and rent at a loss, sell and cut your losses, or consider other strategies?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Theresa Harris]

With those numbers, I'd sell.  You are going to be paying more to keep the house.  The rent won't even cover your mortgage payments.  I might hold it if you were barely breaking even and didn't have a lot of capital gains, but that is the only way.  Rent prices do go up over time.

You mention the home is 10 years old, but not how long you've owned it for.  I'd have expected prices to increase over the last couple of years, so am surprised that you'd only break even or take a loss.