Recast to turn a rental cash flow positive?

Recast to turn a rental cash flow positive?

Member since 2018 · 1 post · 0 votes

Hi All, I'm leaving my primary residence to move to another State shortly and am intending to rent it out rather than sell it. Based on the time of year, rent prices for what I could realistically get for it are about the same or a tad lower than what my all in costs would amount to, making it likely i'll be slightly cash flow negative even if Net Worth positive from this rental.

An option i'm toying around with is doing a recast to make the cash flow better. I would have assumed that recasting in any form would effectively have a Rate of Return equal to my mortgage interest rate but that's not what I'm seeing from my math.

In my case I have approximately 197k mortgage balance and the monthly principal and interest is 911.84. With a 50k recast the monthly payment decreases to 678.56 for a monthly savings of 233.28.

(233.28 x 12)/50,000 = about .059. It looks like close to a 6% annual return on the recasted amount towards principal from a cash flow standpoint but my 30 year fixed mortgage is only 3.75%.

So I have two questions

  1. 1) Is doing a recast to turn a cash flow negative rental to be positive a good use of funds, or it just trying to stubbornly correct a prior mistake (sunk cost fallacy)?
  2. 2)Was my math wrong in determining the rate of return on the recast? I would have expected it to be the same as my mortgage rate of 3.75%, but if it actually is 6% that seems pretty good.

Any feedback is appreciated.

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  • Auburn NY · Member since 2019 · 97 posts · 56 votes
    6y

    To each is own .. but how long will it take you to recoup that 50k in savings from what you're getting back ..17 years?  And is that if everything goes right? So you have to ask your self is there an easier way to get a 6 percent return and I think the answer is yes. You can out your 50k into something else and get 6 percent easily. I also know there are better returns in real estate  than 6 percent so imagine putting that down on a duplex or 4 plex. I think your return would be more than 6 percent  I dont have a place under 20% just to compare so you get an idea

  • Joe VilleneuvePro Member
    Plymouth, MI · Member since 2013 · 13k+ posts · 19k+ votes
    6y

    You're not fixing the negative CF.  All you're doing is paying your negative CF upfront.

  • Nathan GesnerBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
    6y

    As a general rule of thumb, a "good" investment allows you to set 50% of rent income aside for expenses (current or future), pay the mortgage, and then anything left over is "cash flow" for the property. If your mortgage is $911.84, you would have to rent the property for $1,823.68 or more just to break even.

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