Negative cash flow vs appreciation

[Valentine Sviatocha]

Hi there fellow BiggerPockets Investors :) I would like to ask for some opinions as to what would you do in my situation. A few years back I bought a 3300sqft single family home for 650k in SilverSpring,MD in a new upscale development that has a mix of townhouses and higher end single family homes (VA loan). At that time the development was half way done, and because there aren’t too many new constructions around, it seemed that the price is justified, considering amenities (pool, secluded community, running trails,etc) and quality of construction. We also hoped for appreciation, once the community finished building, since supply would be finite. We lived in it for a year, and had to move away and rent it out. We found great renters which are with us till now. We currently live in another state. The lease with our renters is coming to an end soon and we are trying to make a decision as to keep renting out or sell and buy somewhere else. The rent is aprox $400 bellow our mortgage/insurance payments. There maybe a little room to raise rent, but it is unlikely to cover all of it (and that is not accounting for any future expenses, such as capex or maintenance). Our concern is that it seems that in the past few years there has been very little appreciation. I consulted a realtor and he estimated selling price at aprox 700k (just estimates). There are larger (although significantly older) homes around that sell for mid 500k, although they don’t have the community and the amenities. The neighborhood is not near high ranking schools, but the residents that by in our community are high income earners. The community is pretty much finished building. Our loan balance is aprox 580, and our concern is that we are not sure if it makes sense to keep this negatively cash flowing property, since appreciation is not there (and we were not familiar with BiggerPockets when we bought, so a lot of learning happened since). Perhaps someone is familiar with this market? What are your thoughts? Sell and possibly break even or keep renting out and maybe refinance as we get more equity (VA loan is no money down). Any advice or input is appreciated :)

[John Leavelle]

Howdy @Valentine Sviatocha

You are losing $400 per month!  I would not keep throwing good money after bad.  Sell and get started on a better path.