Rent! Don’t Sell…Yet.
If you are trying to sell your house and you are in the rare situation of having bought your property long enough ago that you have plenty of equity, you may be in the difficult situation of having to compete with the REO’s and shortsales out there that are listed well below market value. This means that even if a property is listed at $250k, it will mostly close above asking. If you price your property at the market price, then you run the risk of no one looking at it. Recently a client was listing his condo that he purchased 17 years ago. The condo was priced well for the current market, but after three months, no offers came in and the home owner was unwilling to price the property any lower.
The original plan was to rent the condo. This client purchased a house and was going to keep the condo and rent it out. He was going to rent it to a family member but unfortunately that plan fell through and the HOA rules precluded him renting it out to a non family member. I continued to encourage him to be the squeaky wheel with the homeowners association and try to obtain special dispensation to rent the condo. The client was the longest resident of this condo and I was certain he could get them to change their minds if he was persistent. As it turned out, there is a financial hardship clause in the HOA rules and if nothing else, we are certainly in current financial hardship. He was able to obtain temporary approval to rent the condo.
If you are in a situation where you want or need to move and you have equity and would prefer not to sell your house right now, consider renting it out for the next few years until the market takes a turn towards more of a sellers’ market.
