Should You Sell or Should You Rent Your House?

Along with some of life’s greatest and most exciting changes comes some of our hardest and most stressful decisions. 

A new and better job opens up in a different location, or you and your family decide it’s time to change scenery and move across the country. Suddenly you’re faced with one of those difficult decisions. What should you do with your current house? Should you sell it, or should you rent it out?

Unfortunately, there’s no real easy answer. Ultimately, there will be pros and cons to each side when determining whether to sell or rent your home. 

The Benefits of Renting Your Home

Renting your home can have a lot of benefits. If you’re still paying a mortgage on it, renting could be a great way to chip away at that while also making a profit. 

When you look at the numbers, the average mortgage payment in the USA and the average rent are both around $1100 a month. So, theoretically, renting out your home will mean you’re not paying your mortgage out of pocket. 

Of course, rents and mortgages are going to start to vary a lot more as you look into more location-specific numbers across the country. For instance, the average rent in New York City is going to be a lot higher than that in Pittsburgh. 

In general, though, you’re probably going to be able to cover your mortgage, which is great. 

Another benefit of renting your home is that it lets you wait until the market is right for selling so you can maximize your profit. 

It’s no secret that homes will generally increase in value over the long term. By renting your house first, you can let its value increase before you put it up for sale. And you can do this while chipping away at the mortgage with rent money. 

It’s a win/win, right?

Well, maybe. It turns out renting your home comes with some major potential downsides as well. 

The Potential Cons of Renting Your Home

You can run all the credit checks you want, but there’s simply no way to truly know the person who will be renting from you. 

The first few times you meet them could be amazing. “Wow, what a standup person,” you might think. Then, next thing you know, they’re 3 months behind on rent and you’re stuck in a lengthy eviction process that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Or, they’ve put holes in your walls and trashed the place by throwing parties. Or they’ve snuck pets into the home without telling you and everything is torn to shreds and covered in strange odors. 

Now, you’ve got all of these costs that are coming out of your pockets. Maybe the rent was only barely covering the mortgage, and now you’re losing money because of a bad tenant. 

On top of that, you’re responsible for all the things that just go wrong naturally, like a broken water heater or shingles blowing off of your roof during a windstorm. Maintaining a single home can be a lot of work, let alone maintaining two houses. 

What’s worse, if you’ve moved to a different city you’re going to have to manage all of this remotely or incur travel expenses. 

When it comes down to it, renting your home is going to be a gamble. When deciding whether to rent or sell your house, it’s important to take into consideration the potential costs of being a landlord. 

The Benefits of Selling Your House

Selling your house comes with a lot of benefits, of course. You’re getting a lot of money up front that could help you to establish your new life wherever you’re moving to. You can get enough to cover the remainder of your mortgage and put a sizable down payment on a new home. 

When you sell your house, you don’t have to worry about tenants or things going wrong in the home down the road. That’s the responsibility of the new owners. 

If the idea of renting your home out seems like a major headache to you, that might be a sign that you’re better off selling. 

It’s also important to look at how the local housing market is. If people are buying and the value of your home is higher than you anticipated, then you probably have your answer. 

Of course, the downside to selling is that you’re missing out on potential money. If you’d rented and sold in a few years, you might have gotten more. But, again, look at those words “potential” and “might have.” There’s no such thing as a sure bet. 

To Rent or to Sell? Ask Harvey Goodman Realtor

If you’re somebody who’s weighing the options between selling your home and renting it out, give Harvey Goodman Realtor a call. 

Our expert agents place your interests above all else, and you’ll be sure to get sound advice on the pros and cons of each course of action. 

If you do decide to sell, we’ll make the process as seamless as possible for you while ensuring that you get top dollar for your home.