Ladies and gents,
I am new to this forum...and though I have been a landlord for about 5 years I am very inexperienced with the idea of rental property as income. My situation is this: I bought a house and lived in it for 3 years. I bought in 2007 (just before the crash) and have been upside down on the house since its purchase. I purchased originally at 225000 at 6.5% on a 30 yr contract. 3 years after purchase, the property turned into a rental house. A year later I refinanced at 3.5% and figured I would keep my original payment amount and go with a 15 yr mortgage. Here is the catch...I wasn't savvy on the cash flow idea when I refinanced (I mostly decided on it because I don't like huge debt and therefore like to pay it all down quickly). The rent on the house is $600 shy every month of the total cost of managing and the mortgage. My question is this: if I refinance the house for a 30 yr mortgage, the rent will cover all costs except occasional maintenance charges. Is it worth it to pay a refinance cost and go back to a 30 yr mortgage or should I stick with my 15 yr plan and pay it off quickly?
