Should I sell my property?

[Jeffrey Vlk]

I bought a brand new construction condo 2 years ago that is waterfront and just a gorgeous home with my va loan. My intention was to add this property to the 2 other rentals in my portfolio to help me on the way to my goal of 10 rental properties by the time I get out of the military in 10 years. I am closing on another house that I will be moving into in a week and am trying to rent my place out right now and am having troubles renting it out. I will bullet the situation so people do not have to read an essay.

Location

- East Beach Norfolk, VA

-waterfront with views from every window in the house

-upcoming area around the neighborhood. 10 years ago the area was filled with crack houses and now it is being revamped and there are multimillion dollar homes through out now and more to come (should be a great capital gains investment if held for a while)

What worries me about the condo

- not getting any applications and the house being on the market for 30 days.

-some of the other rentals in the neighborhood have been on the market for 3 months now, 1 of them for 6 months

-it is waterfront so in 5-10 years they are going to have to replace the bulkhead and place the cost on all the homeowners

- the condo association is ran horribly and they cant get anything done. When I moved in the hoa dues were $190 and this year they are $230. So I am nervous that they are just going to be going up

- there is some talk from the association that they will be enforcing the 80% owner occupied rule when the neighborhood gets to that (its literally right next to a military base so I don't think that will be more than 2 or 3 years.

-there is a brand new apartment complex going up next to my place so worried about the competition

-it is a very niche market neighborhood...the schools are horrible so only older people or families with not school age children will want to move in, my rent price is around $1800 and it is a condo with no garage or yard so that limits people there.

The good

-home is water side and 30 seconds to the beach so I would think that would attract people

- the area has lots of new buildings coming in and is starting to attract some businesses.

- they are putting in a new outlet mall about 5 miles from my place

-when people do get tenants in the neighborhood they tend to get pretty high rents 

-home is brand new so if I rent it out there should be really low maintenance issues

The Situation

- My property has been on the rental market for 30 days now and have had a lot of interest but not even one application turned it yet.

-Some one contacted me and said they wanted to buy the property without any realtor commissions and they would pay for all the fees. I would properly only make $10,000-$20,000....should I just take the money and go put it into a better place that I will be an easier rental so I can get cashflow and capital gains?