Should You Rent Your Home Until It Becomes a Seller’s Market?
If your home is sitting on the market longer than you expected—or you're considering selling but aren't excited about what you could get for it—you may have another option:
Rent it and wait.
When homes take longer to sell and buyers have more negotiating power, homeowners can find themselves lowering their asking price, offering concessions, or accepting less than they hoped for.
Instead of feeling pressured to sell in a slower market, renting your home could give you the opportunity to hold onto the property until selling conditions improve.
Why Sell If You Don't Have To?
For most homeowners, their house is one of their largest financial assets.
If today's market isn't giving you the price you want, ask yourself:
Do I actually need to sell right now?
If the answer is no, turning the home into a rental may give you more flexibility.
Rather than reducing the price just to get the property sold, you may be able to place a qualified tenant in the home, generate rental income, and revisit selling later.
Let a Tenant Help Pay Down Your Mortgage
One of the biggest advantages of renting is that your property continues working for you.
While you own the home, a tenant's rent can help cover your mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and other property expenses.
At the same time, each mortgage payment may continue building equity in the property.
Instead of selling for less than you hoped, you could potentially spend the next couple of years paying down the mortgage while waiting to see what the housing market does.
Keep Your Current Interest Rate
This can be especially important for homeowners who purchased or refinanced when interest rates were lower.
Selling means giving up that existing mortgage.
If you have a favorable interest rate, keeping the property and renting it may be worth considering before walking away from that financing.
Give the Market Time
Real estate markets change.
There are times when buyers have more negotiating power and times when sellers do. No one can guarantee where home prices or interest rates will be a year or two from now.
That's why renting isn't about trying to perfectly time the market.
It's about giving yourself options.
If the numbers work as a rental, you may be able to hold the property, collect rent, build equity, and wait for a market in which you feel more comfortable selling.
When selling conditions improve, you can reevaluate.
You might decide it's time to sell—or you may discover that keeping the property as a long-term rental makes even more sense.
You Don't Have to Choose Between Selling Today and Staying Forever
Sometimes homeowners think they only have two choices:
Sell the house now or keep living in it.
There's a third option.
Move forward with your plans, rent the house, and sell when the timing makes more sense for you.
Of course, renting isn't right for every property. You need to consider the expected rent, mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, property management costs, and your personal financial situation.
But before dropping your asking price or accepting an offer you're unhappy with, it may be worth finding out what your home could generate as a rental.
Thinking About Selling? Run the Rental Numbers First.
At Hilltop Property Management, we help Treasure Valley homeowners understand what their property could realistically rent for and what turning their home into a rental would look like.
If your home isn't selling for what you believe it's worth, you may not have to sell it yet.
Rent it. Let the property work for you. Build equity. And when market conditions become more favorable to sellers, you can decide whether it's time to put it back on the market.
Before you lower the price, find out what your home could rent for.
