Newbie from Austin Texas with a "good problem"

[Karla P.]

Hi,

I'm a newbie here, but have been wrestling with this decision and studying up and would like feedback.

We have a house in Austin we bought in a very good neighborhood/school zone in 1995 for 110k. In 2002 we moved overseas and it has since been a rental property. We get about 1650 a month in rent, it's a 2/1 in original 1950 condition (very well preserved, clean and minimally updated because I like the 50's tiles)  so rental income is limited due to the size. The value in the house has been the appreciation, approx. 6.5% a year. The rent mostly covers costs (prop taxes, mortgage 600 a month, prop mgr 7%, insurance $500 a year), with a small profit, maybe $100 a month.

TRAVISCAD raised our property taxes this year over 50%, valuing the house at 435k from 286k  (yes I'm fighting it, but sense a losing battle as they raised the land value and not really the house/improvement value). 

So basically, with the property taxes (now at almost 12k a year) taking away any possible profit and the fact that in order to get more rent out of the house I will have to spend a lot of cash I don't have  in improvements, I think I want to sell.

I don't know that I want to do a 1031 exchange simply because I don't know markets outside Texas and I don't know that i want to do the landlord thing in Texas anymore. I'm really hacked off with the taxes.

When is enough enough with a rental property? I know the Austin market is smoking hot and even with cap gains I could stand to clear 300k after tax and expenses. (I owe 50k on the house.) I could just put that money somewhere to grow and be more liquid.

Is the appreciation worth it anymore? (Should mention husband is out of work, I'm sole bread winner and I'm really tired of 25% of my gross salary going to property taxes in Texas, on the rent house and our current homestead in Houston.) 

Just wondering when enough is enough and when to pull the plug. (I DO have an emotional attachment to the house and to Austin, I always looked at it as my escape hatch if the sh*t hit the fan, but I think the property taxes have priced me out of that too.) 

It's a good problem to have, I guess, but I'm wondering if the rental income vs the value of the house means definitively it's time to sell? Austin is killing me. 

[Jon Klaus]

Welcome to BiggerPockets, Karla!

It's no fun when property taxes take most of the rental income. On the other hand, as you said, you've had great appreciation.

Another option beyond keeping or selling, is to redevelop your property. I have a rental in East Austin that only brings in  $700 per month, yet when I build new houses on the lot, I should be able to get over a million,  I have another one, that did rent for $700 per month before it i demo'ed it, and I plan to build 4 houses on that lot that will sell for about 1.8 million. 

You wouldn't have to build yourself, you could partner with a developer to get it done.