Should i sell my house?

[Satha Palani]

Hi,

In a dilemma on whether i should sell or rent my current residence out and was hoping to get some thoughts from the experts.

I bought the SFH i live in 2 years ago. My total investment at the time was $50K, 20% plus closing and other costs. I recently purchased a duplex (closing next week) that I will have to move into for at least a year. The numbers on the duplex are solid. However i am conflicted on whether to sell the current house.

The mortgage on it is $1.1K and i can rent it out for $1.5K with the tenant paying all utilities. The way i see it, i will make about 4K on the house annually, which is an 8% return on my cash investment while accruing capital appreciation. 

Alternatively, if i sell it i could make a a small (15K) profit and reinvest the 65K in another rental property. 

Am i being foolish in leaning towards keeping it?

thanks,

satha  

[Matt Jones]

It sounds like you are forgetting to account for vacancies or any kind of capital expenditures.  I think your actual cash on cash return would be much lower in reality.  Check out some of the calculators and run your numbers a few times to get a more accurate picture.