Should I sell or rent?

[Pekka]

I want to sell my house because I do not want to live in this little town anymore.

Current situation:
A house with the mortgage. I still have around 200k left to pay. However, due to employee benefits, I don't get an interest rate. So I only pay 790 euros a month for it. Not too bad. House value is around 300k. I've lived over 2 years in here so I don't have to pay extra taxes on selling this. I also get realtor benefits (the person who makes the sale).

And I rent in Helsinki (really cheap) 640EUR a month. So my monthly burn rate for housing is 1.4k plus utilities, adding another few hundred per month. So 1.6k a month.

The kind of apartments I'd rent in Helsinki that would be suitable for the kids go around 1.5k a month. But I cannot spend over 2k a month for housing only. Way too much with my income tax. Would leave me a bit over 1k a month after utilities. Add food, insurances and kids, I could manage, but would not have any fun money, or for saving.

So! I just realised I could rent my house instead. This going rate is around 1.5k a month or more. In other words, would it not make sense to move to the place in Helsinki, keep my house and let the renter pay my mortgage? With the upside of possibly 100k after selling for profit, I could sell the whole thing and get the whole profit after say 10 years? I could even move abroad and still rent. I'd only rent to a family anyway and would probably have to give them an option to buy for a bit cheaper after the mortgage is done with. Or not. Depends if I have feelings left or not. Or give them 6 months notice (or what would be suitable), and sell this if the market is optimal.

What do you reckon? Sell soon or rent? It makes sense to fully use the bank benefit of no interest rate, and have someone else pay for it. My spenditure would be around the same though... but I could ditch the house and live better in Helsinki and get a bigger profit later with the house.

[Bereta_Eder]

I don't know. I think that selling property is like a sin
Better rent it as long as it covers its mortage payments? And then (muuuch later) your kids will have it.

P.S. do you also pay tax on property? or is this something the *&^%*ers have imposed just on us?

[Giancarlo]

Rent it, but make sure you pick the right person to rent to. I love cats, but if someone has ten cats and want to move in... Think it over. My dad had a property which he rented and some lady's cats destroyed all the carpet and she took very poor care of the place in general. Of course that is where the security deposit came into play. It didn't entirely cover, and my dad got her to settle the damages (almost went to court).

If you rent (and I advise renting over selling), screen your renters carefully. It could save you a huge headache.

[Sava]

rent

use that asset

hold it upside down and shake it for everything it is worth

[rah]

Didn't you build this puppy? If so, I would also recommend renting so you have time to decide any long term disposition.

[C0ckney]

unless you need a big lot of cash right now, i would recommend renting it out.

[Dinner]

Try to rent it out but realize, on average, it will be vacant two months per year and you have to have money saved to cover the mortgage even while you are between renters.

[C0ckney]

i'm not sure about finland, but here in brasil, it's normal for a rental contract to last three years. in other places, tenancies can be very long term.

[The Mad Monk]

Are there professional rental management companies in Finland? That might be an option to keep the unpleasentness at arms length.

[kentonio]

100% rent. Only way to improve on that would be to then buy in Helsinki so you have two morgages counting down (dependent on second home taxes/minimum deposit levels etc of course).

[Pekka]

OK, giving this more thought, I'd agree. Renting it will be.

I built it with my dad, and people in here don't rent big houses for few months. I can put it in the contract that minimum 1 or 2 years. I can make up the rule I want to. And have a deposit worth of 2 months, or a year if I really wanted. It is free for me to decide. I am not in a hurry to get rid of this, rather long term plans, nor do I need cash fast. I can sit on this, I just consider it a lot of burn rate for very little return at the moment. I feel this house si going to waste as it is not used so much.

No two mortgages... the way it goes is like this:
You need 30 % cash for a house loan. Average house in here goes for say 300k. My benefit for 0 interest rate goes up to 250k. So I'd need to sell this first to get the second loan. I see a huge risk in getting 2 mortgages and paying the second one off with the rent from the first one, as the interest would be normal market price and I could run into trouble of losing both if something happens, or forced to sell the other one below the market price. I might want to buy in Helsinki, but I'd want at least 200k profit, be it saved from rent or not first. Then I can get a really good place in Helsinki with 0 interest. (450k total). Yet, that ties me down to this country for an extra 10 to 20 years. Then again, I could rent that Helsinki place as well, where the market is always hot and rents high.

I reckon I'll rent this one and get a new rental in Helsinki and see how things go. Enough things going on at the moment to cause more hassle.

The underlying reason I want out of here is that I am miserable in here. But, my daughter will start her school in here so I kind of need the place, besides I cannot, then, rent this out. I'd need to rent something in here for the sole purpose of having a place to have the kids with me. A bit complicated. If this was not the case, I would have either rented or possibly sold this house already.

[jessaragen]

I rent out my flat and rent a room in other city instead. So the scheme is easy and I find it profitable as I can sell my flat when property market prices will rise.

[Pekka]

Well there might be a change now.

First, we had a huge fall out with my ex-wife. So what else is new? As in she went ballistics and I said (on the phone), "OK.... right.... why don't you email me this stuff? OK... I will hang up soon.... you are being disrespectful... sure... Mhmh... right... ok so put this all in an email, bye". She wanted the kids to her new place, so they'd start their school and everything. Now I got a text saying that the school next to me is expanding, so she guesses that the kids will go there anyway, no matter when they live with her or me (this would be an arrangement between provinces, all that bureaucracy crap). So that's excellent news! That means the kids will go to the school next to my house, not next to her new place. Downside? I cannot rent or sell this place. Between that and kids, I choose kids every time. Easy one.

And not only that, but I trust you remember Dr. Lovely? Well, I am having a date with the homicide cop in less 10 in weekend after next. I was supposed to go out with her a looong time ago, but then I met Dr. Lovely first and went on a date and well... that was that. But the cop still wants to go on a date and see how it works out

She lives in Helsinki (close to my apartment) and has two sisters, both living within 15 minutes drive from my house here. She visits them all the time. If the date works out, I don't see why I should be considering going anywhere from here, as I'd be able to date her in Helsinki, and in here. And she does not mind the kids, as Dr. Lovely did. She said she does not, yet she never wanted to meet them. An insult of a kind. So now, here's hoping the date goes well At least she is very interesting. I hope she has not built up huge expectations, we first started chatting a logn time ago. Over 6 months. And then I had to stop, as I started dating that other woman. But we're over now and both still single and interested.

[kentonio]

She said she does not, yet she never wanted to meet them. An insult of a kind.

That doesn't have to be an insult, she might just have been nervous and wanted to see where things went with the two of you first.