Selling an Occupied Rental Property

[StaticCling]

We have a house outside of San Antonio that is currently being leased by a relatively long term tenant. We pay a Property Management company to deal with all the grunt work, so the place is pretty much hands off. We get a little positive cash flow from it, but generally it gets stashed in case we need to fix something etc.

Lately, Heather and I have been thinking about dumping it. It has been relatively hassle free, outside of a few repairs here and there. We invested some money into to it a few years ago and had the place tiled and new carpet in the bedrooms (previous tenant moved)...it's a nice house, built around 2005 in a nice neighborhood.

We aren't hurting for money, but we are just getting to the point where we want to simplify things a bit. We also own a rental in North Carolina that we will be hanging on to (property value is way down on that one), but we stand to make a healthy profit from the sale of this house if we decide to do that.

Any pointers on where to start on this? I certainly don't want to kick anybody out on the street, but just considering my options...

[Fastguy]

You need to consider the capital gains implications, may want to talk to a cpa about a 1031 exchange.

[HellCat]

Assuming tenant is not on lease - ask them to purchase; offer "lease/purchase" contract; advise them you are putting it on the market; put on market and at sale time give tenant eviction notice. Advise tenant you will enforce "security deposit" if damages are present. Sell house.

[simpleman68]

Originally Posted by Fastguy

You need to consider the capital gains implications, may want to talk to a cpa about a 1031 exchange.

Also important to consider whether you've been taking deductions for depreciation along the way. If so, you'll get hit with full cap gains.

With each property I make a list of all revenue and costs through 5 yrs, 10 yrs etc of holding. The nice part about aging amortization is paying a much bigger chunk of principle each month.

Even if I'm barely in the black on a property, the fact that my tenants are paying it off for me if huge.

For me there's no reason to sell unless I can absorb any potential loss and/or make more money with the freed up capital elsewhere.

Having a great CPA is hugely important if you don't already have one.
Scott