[Fortitudinal]

Gentlemen,

I find myself in a situation that you might have seen before: Im tied to a house, that although it can provide with a stream of income, its also a headache to upkeep.

Im trying to get out of N America, but being still in charge of the house means I have to find a property manager, tenants etc. Also, due to the gray nature of the house rental arrangement (I rent rooms in the house to students) no management company wants to touch it.
The last property manager walked out on me, and I cant find anyone to run the show. I asked a close friend to do it, but he has a lot going on, or has no interest. I trust very few people.
Right now, the house is barely making me any coin, and I cant find student or tenants. Im not in the country to do it myself (ads, interviews, etc I like to size up whoever is gonna live there), and after reading horror stories of bad tenants of absentee landlords, I find myself in a pickle.
If its all full, I could make $600/mo clean. Having, of course, a reserve in case anything needs fixing.

Selling means that I would get a nice bit of change all at once, and I could theoretically live off the interest somewhere cheap and warm (Thailand, Laos, Colombia?). Suppliment that with a job here and there, and it could work very well.
However, I like the idea of having a safe ground to go back to in case TSHTF wherever I am. Or to have as backing for a bussiness.
I am somewhat sentimentally attached to it, I have spent a lot of time and effort into it.

Thoughts?

[Gmac]

This may not help too much, but my dad rents only to military families (he owns two other properties and is essentially the landlord). He has very few problems (usually maintenance) with the tenants and they are typically down for 2 or 3 years of leasing due to the nature of TDY. As for someone to manage it, that's a tough one. Someone here with more experience might have a good solution.

[MikeCF]

Do the math. Divide:

How much are you making on the house by;
How many hours are you spending to make that money. Factor in worry, etc.

So if you're making $1,000 a month while working 10 hours, that's $100 an hour. Is it worth it? Only you can put a price on your time.

[gringoed]

I'm a professional real estate investor.

If you're not getting tenants and you're marketing it well, you either need to improve the place or lower the rent. Besides getting it filled, the lower you charge the more selection you'll have among prospective tenants and the longer they're likely to stay.

I would also, in the meantime, put it up for sale and see what kind of interest you get from the market. The markets are very sluggish but you might get lucky. Your broker wont get paid unless they sell so you have nothing to lose.

[Kaizen]

To compare your 2 options, you would have to know how you would invest money obtained from the sale of the home.

You say you could live off the interest...what type of investment vehicle would your money be parked in?

In this market, not a lot gives a good ROI .

[Farmageddon]

If you own the house clear and free you could owner finance sell it. I own two properties that I used to rent out and then got sick of all the general upkeep, so I sold to the neighbors (just put a 'for sale by owner' sign out front) and sold both houses twithin 2 weeks.

Now the buyer is responsible for all general repairs and upkeep, plus if they walk after a few years you get to keep all the equity they built up and resale or rerent the property out. I had outstanding buyers both times that have been a pleasure to deal with, plus they have never been late on the mortgage payment, which is always nice.

Of course, if you don't own the house yet and still owe this wouldn't be an option. But something to think about if you do.

Good luck.