Should I Sell or Rent my First Home?

[Peter Wilkins]

Hello all! This is my first post here. Looking forward to getting involved with the community. I've listened to many podcasts, read several blog posts, and want to eventually start working on real estate investment deals on the side (perhaps starting with BRRRR). But first, I would love to get YOUR opinion on how I should proceed with my specific situation I got myself into *before* starting my self-education on real-estate investing,.

I'm currently living in the Seattle area, where I purchased my first SFH a year ago as my primary residence. It was an extremely competitive market back then and I got into a bidding war and ended up overpaying pretty significantly for my home by buying at the top of the market in a desirable neighborhood for a turnkey house.

A year later, I've accepted employment in the Los Angeles area and I'm relocating. So now I have to decide if I want to rent out my home, deal with a property management company cross-country, be cash flow negative for a while, or sell the home at a loss and reinvest the money elsewhere.  

The House

3b/2.5ba 1915sqft SFH in zip 98029

Purchase price: $865,000

40% down -> 499k 30 year fixed mortgage @ 4.5%

Remaining mortgage: $489k. PITI: $3172 / month.

I bought at the very top, home has depreciated about 50k over the past year :-(. I put 25k into updates before moving in (new floors, carpets).  

Clearly this was a bad investment from the get-go and I have experienced tremendous buyers remorse about this. It has been a nice place to live however, but now that I'm moving:

If I sell, I probably couldn't get more than $820k for it, putting my loss at 100k or more. But I get the rest of my down payment back out and could invest in something smart, or a better deal on a primary residence elsewhere.

If i rent, I would be hard pressed to get more than 3k / month.  Even if I could rent it at $3172 (break even), I'd be losing ~$317 / mo to the property management company, + any expenses that come up like repairs or vacancy (we're in an in-demand neighborhood). But, I'd get the tax break, and maybe if I rent long enough it will start to appreciate again?

Would you sell or rent the home and why?