Ok, so...advice from homowners

[The Renaissance Man]

Fell in love and am marrying a cool gal, and there's an option not to have to sell the place I live in now when we get our own pad. The rent we could get would cover the mortgage and the property mgmt costs, & it could be paid off in 6 yrs without even trying hard

My first instinct is to not let go of real estate, but the notion of selling and instantly becoming debt free is pretty swell too.

Thoughts?

Love's fucking grand, y'all!

[Rachel Peters]

I think about that a lot. To sell an be debt free, yes, but then you have to pay rent again -- money out the window, without a growing investment.
Renting the house out will be demanding and you run the risk of having someone crap up the joint.
I remember being young and renting a house... I once broke a door right off the frame. ...Tenants do stupid stuff when it's not their home.
I rent ROOMS in my house, which is a different story. Since I live here too, I reserve some safety of being able to kick people out on my own discretion. It's more of a roommate situation, but they pay the rent to me. renting the whole house (at least here) could get you stuck with people you can't just evict.
Even renting my rooms turned ugly this last year, for the first time. I had to kick someone out and change the locks and spray for all sorts of scary things and tear up carpet and clean up three garbage bags of trash out of just ONE bedroom. ...as well as have a slight fear of thugs coming around, after the fact.
So, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.
I guess it depends on what you need more right now.
Personally, I would rent the house out and wait for it to grow in value. I'd take the chance that you'd have to repair things the tenants break and spend a lot of time being the landlord. I'd wait for the house to grow in value and get more money out of it after the economy gets better. Paid off in six years sounds great. ...to someone who's only two years into a 35 year mortgage. heh.

[Jim]

Keep it.

If it's cash flow positive, why not let it keep paying for itself while you go off and do your own thing? I wouldn't want to sell a house in this market.

If you can hold off selling for 4-5 years it may be worth double what it is right now. (And those 4-5 years would cost you nothing!)

I wouldn't try to hold on to a piece of real estate you weren't living in that was COSTING you money. But the way you put it, it seems like you have nothing to lose (except time property managing) and everything to gain a few years from now.

[jeep caillouet]

Hey there is nothing better in life than plain oh love. Best to you and yours. Lighten up, that ole house will take care of itself. Piece and have some fun!

[Steven Ragatz]

Keep it. Situations change and it may very well be the place that you guys need to go to make it all work. Think of it as your safety net.

Steven Ragatz

[The Renaissance Man]

Keeping it's likely, but no way do I wanna live here a day longer than needed...am apparently more of a country mouse, and this is waaay more city than I can take. If I hear a pop-pop-pop I want to feel sure it's fireworks instead of knowing it's gunplay.

Thanks for the advice, all!

cd

[Rachel Peters]

I hope it's popcorn!

...now I'm hungry.