if you've had it professionally appraised and talked with a number of realtors who have given you information that leads you to believe you can get 500k with relative ease (within 90 days of listing), yes then it's probably worth 500k.second - you owe A LOT OF MONEY on it already.

Anyhow the house is no more then 10-12 years old so its in relatively good structural shape.

I have spent some time in the Phoenix area in the past and still have friends and relatives in the Valley.

Mostly folks who become RE rich but cash poor while they wait.I sent you a PM on a related item.

Even if the housing market has a nice uptick and people start really scratching for homes near the train areas, this could be a $425k home in relatively little time, in my opinion.There are sellers of "rental homes" in rundown neighborhoods where I would never want to live.

The IRS rules for not paying the tax on the gain are not going to work all that well if you cook up a sale like you are suggesting.You might be able to sell to a related party (sister or an LLC you own).

A related issue is recording of the option.

I have been trolling the forum for some time, and finally decided to get more involved.There are so many forums related to Real Estate Investing now that you have to be very picky on where you place your efforts.Well, I am a Realtor, shocking?

You might post in some of the landlord related forums to get a discussion going specific to your issues.We bought our first house in Texas 20 years ago with seller financing.

The plan I have set out is as follows; a) move to a state where housing is still relatively cheap and easy to finance (I only have 7k in cash).