Need Advice! Sell, Hold and LTR with future STR in mind?

[David VanWert]

Long story short... need some sagely advice. 

Inherited a property from a family member passing late last year. Property is in a great STR location in Wa state.

Once we took possession we did a complete rehab on the property, floors, kitchen, new bath, the works, We had intended to turn it into our third STR.

We owe 150K on the property and ARV is roughly 800-850K. The original intent was to refi, HELOC and role into 2-3 more STR's elsewhere (likely the smokies).

Come to find out the town just passed a moratorium on STR permits last week for a minimum of 12c months, will likely be closer to 18 months once you get through all the paper work and get approval. Ouch...

Question is do we hold, and covert to an LTR for a year or two to cash flow a bit, still pull some equity and HELOC with the intent to STR when they allow new permits again.

Or, do we just move the property, take advantage of the hot market and step-up basis on the tax break since it was inherited after a death and take the money into other properties. 

I'm hesitant to sell given the "goose that laid the golden egg" with nearly 700K in equity that can be tapped, paid off and repeat....

Would love some thoughts!! 0

[Aaron W.]

@David VanWert If I were in this situation, I would hold on to the property and rent it out while you are going through the application process. This will allow you to have cash flow coming in to pay down the loan. 

I'd probably also consider doing a cash-out refi now and pull out as much equity as I can while the interest rates are still low. We don't know where rates will be 12-18 months from now. All indications are they will remain low(er) but who knows.

I like to hold onto cash flowing properties when I can and, with the cash out refi, you'll keep the property and have around $600k (based upon your ARV at @75% LTV) to use for additional properties.

Good luck!