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Updated 11 months ago,

User Stats

74
Posts
58
Votes
Justine Phillipson
  • Real Estate Agent
  • Scottsdale, AZ
58
Votes |
74
Posts

Should I Keep, Flip or Sell My Property? All advice welcome!

Justine Phillipson
  • Real Estate Agent
  • Scottsdale, AZ
Posted

My long-term tenants just put in their 30 day notice, the house is in rough shape, and I live out of state. I need advice on what I should do next. 

My property is in South Bend, Indiana. I live in Arizona, I purchased the property site unseen. I have never been to the property. I purchased the home in 2020, with the tenants still in place. They have lived in the property since 2016. It's been a great cash-flowing rental. 

These are my 3 options that I have. Below are my estimates of costs and value. Let me know if I am missing any other options. 

Property Info

  • Purchase Price: $62,500
  • Current As-Is Value: $80,000
  • Loan Amount: $46,000
  • Interest Rate: 5.125%
  • Monthly Payment: $400
  • 3 bed, 1 bath
  • 800 Sq. Ft with large unfinished basement. If the basement was finished it would be about 1,500 sq. ft.

Option 1- Fix & Rent

  • Cost of Repairs: $10,000 (Estimate to get the house rent-ready, would leave the basement unfinished)
  • Market Rent: $1,100
  • Monthly Profit: (Rent $1,100) - ($700/month) - (8% property management cost is $88) = $612/month
  • Other Benefits: Tax write-off, continued appreciation, continue to pay off mortgage, risk-management against my other rental property, passive income. My property management company is willing to handle and manage the repairs (but since it'll be expensive I will likely want to go there so I can manage some of the repairs and pick out my materials).Out of the 3 options, this would come with the least amount of tax repercussions.
  • Cons: Moderate stress. May or may not require any travel. Will require a decent amount of money out of pocket and would take 9 months of total rent to re-coup my repair costs, or about 2 years of the “increased” rent to pay for repairs. 

Option 2- Flip & Sell

  • Cost of Repairs: $35,000 (There's a large unfinished basement, if I flip the home I would finish the basement)
  • After Repair Value: $125,000
  • Take Home After Loan Payoff: $44,000
  • Other Benefits: Most profit, would allow me to be invest in my first flip local in Phoenix.
  • Cons: This option would have the Most amount of stress, will require travel and stress. Would require a lot of money out of pocket and would hit me the hardest with taxes, but would give a high return and open up funds for me to invest locally here. This would also take the most amount of time.

Option 3- Offload through my work (I work for an investment firm. Would sell off market, as-is to a cash buyer)

  • Cost of Repairs: $0
  • Sale Price: $70,000
  • Take Home After Loan Payoff: $24,000
  • Other Benefits: No stress or travel, but minimal return. Would sell quickly, and would open up some funds to reinvest in a flip local to me.
  • Cons: Would be selling off-market and as-is, would get me the lowest return. A moderate hit on taxes.

Out of the three options I am leaning towards option 1. I am not excited to have to put a lot of money into the property, but my ultimate goal is to continue to build wealth and passive income through real estate. I believe the market rent would be about $1,100- which would be great because my tenants were only paying $750. I kept the rent low because they were great tenants and the house wasn't in good shape. 

But I also have a goal of doing my first flip locally in Phoenix. Option 2 & 3 would both open up funds for me to be able to do a flip. 

Below are some photos of the condition of the home. Mind you, these were taken in 2021 so they are dated but they're the most recent photos that I have. 

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