Ask Paula - Should I Sell My Rental Property and Invest the Proceeds in the Market?

#102: This week, I'm back to answering questions posed by listeners of the podcast. An anonymous listener asks: Should we continue to rent out our home, or should we sell it? We bought a home in California but have since moved to New York and have been renting there. After all expenses on the rental are accounted for, we receive $150/mo in profit. We estimate that even with repairs factored in, we'll still be in the positive. However, my husband thinks it's better to sell the property and invest the profits. I think we're better off keeping the house and having someone else pay the mortgage. Who has the better idea? What would you do? Jessica asks: My husband and I are about to relocate from the mid-west to Colorado Springs, and we anticipate making $80,000 from the sale of our house. Should we take the proceeds from the sale and put it toward our next home? Or should we put that money in index funds instead? For context, we plan on buying either a duplex or triplex, or doing a fix-and-flip like we did with our current home. Terri asks: How can I find a good real estate agent - especially one who is good with short sales and foreclosures? What are the signs of a good real estate agent? Laura asks: My husband and I currently own a three-family home (in which we live on the bottom floor), but in light of getting a new job that requires me to commute an hour each way, we are thinking about either converting the three-family home into three condo units and selling them, or buying another house and keeping the three-family home as a rental. There's another factor to consider, though: the property is located on a peninsula, and with sea levels rising, we don't think it has long-term potential (in terms of equity). What should we do? For more, visit the show notes at http://affordanything.com/episode102 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices