Hi y'all, I am struggling with whether to sell or rent out a house I own in the States and would love some input, especially from anyone who has been in a similar situation.
I am on a work visa in Japan and just renewed my 5 year zairyu card. My job is permanent and I generally like living in Japan. Single, late 40s.
The house I bought back in 2012. I refinanced in 2021 and have an under 3% mortgage remaining of about $200k USD. Purchase price was $350k USD and current market value is about $700k USD. Basically I have paid ten years of interest and am now cutting into the principal.
Since 2021 a relative was living in/managing the property, a main house and a guest house. They since decided quite suddenly to move to another state. I wish they had decided to do so a year ago…
If rented, the guest house has got $1200-1400 in the past and the main should go for about $2000, depending on which utilities are included or not. Mortgage is $1400 monthly including the property taxes. A property manager would be at least 10% and I am sure I would have some maintenance costs fairly regularly as the place is "classic."
Can't exclude cap gains taxes in the US since it hasn't been my primary residence for more than 5 years. Now I am also past 5 years in Japan and will have to declare it after 12/31 this year, and pay taxes on cap gains if I sell in Japan before then anyway.
So: sell or rent?
If I sell it and at some point want to return to the US, it might be hard to break back into the US market. If it was a rental I could reclaim it to live in or sell the paid off house and buy elsewhere at that point (in my late 60s, in 20 years). I don't own a place in Japan yet, but wouldn't need to sell the place to fund one. If I did sell I'd likely throw it into investments. Investments would probably outperform the housing value, but selling a very low APR loan house that could rent for double the loan is hard (and I love the house).
by nnavenn