Thoughts on the Auburn Area Market? Sell or Rent?

[Kimsua Chay]

Hey BP! So I'm a new member here and I currently own a nice 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car garage condo up in the Lake Tapps/Lakeland Hills area. I happened upon a great deal on my condo (I believe I found it on Zillow by sheer luck) because of a short sale about two years ago when I was simply looking to buy vs rent as I was tired of moving around each year and trying to remember what my actual address is. I never realized the opportunity that I had stumbled into but I'm in a fortunate spot to really reap the rewards from it now.

With that said, I'm going to have to relocate out of state and I'm looking for some advice on whether I should sell for a sizable profit in this crazy market or keep my condo and rent it out as it can cash flow with the current rent prices in the area. I'm meeting with a property manager next week to get their opinion on things but I'm still trying to do my own research on it for obvious reason. I've also talked my realtor and he says the market is ridiculously hot and that pretty much everything he's sold minus one property has sold over by 5-15k above asking price so now would be a great time to sell. So that basically leaves me with the million dollar question, sell while the value is higher than it's even been for my condo (reinvest a large amount of it elsewhere after) or hold and rent it out for some cash flow?

I've looked (or I believe I have anyways) at all the numbers for renting and at the current rates with a property manager I can cash flow anywhere between $100-250 the first year followed by $170-350 year two depending on what we charge for rent. I could generate even more cash flow without a PM but given that I'll be living out of State and traveling that's pretty much not an option at this point. Ideally I would rather rent and hold but if the rental prices drop over the next couple of years I'll see a potentially significant hit to my cash flow.

The flip side to that is I can simply sell and cash out now while the market is good. I plan on reinvesting a significant chunk of that into other rental properties elsewhere so the profits would go to good use but part of me wonders if its worth holding onto this condo for longer and see if it'll appreciate even more and use the cash flow to pay down the current mortgage even more.

Thoughts?