Sell, Lease or refinance or jsut stay put...

[lvmbh]

My husband an I have bought two properties in Las Vegas in the last 8 months.

1. Is "Rented" 1 br condo- we are refinancing to get rid of PMI and lower payment to make a modest profit.

2. 3 br townhouse we live in currently. (sell, lease and refinance)

I would in some ways rather stay put becuase we have fixed this place up with 10 k in improvements. We have @ 60- 70k in equity and we could way with @ 25k in profit if we sell in the near future.

But, I am also attracted to buying something else so what should we do with property 2? If we rent our current morgage will allow us to do break even and possibly sell the place in a year or two or we could keep the place as an invest but, our equity is stuck if we do not refinance?

If anyone knows the Vegas Market, my husband's fear is that single family home prices are getting too high and he wants to buy a starter home to leverage for later years.. We are a you couple w/ no kid and combined income of over 125k.

Any suggestions?

[tedjr]

Howdy Lvmbh:

Having equity stuck is not a bad thing. You could use it to buy other property but you would probably have negative cash flow on the condo if you refinance. You want to own as much property you can manage if you foresee  values on the rise. You do not have to move to buy more property either. If you like where you are then stay and buy some duplexes with 100% investor financing. With good income like yours and above average credit you should be able to buy several dozen units this week. Try to get then at 85 to 90% or retail or less with some cash flow. This may not be possible in Vegas as I know the market is RED HOT. Grab something you can afford to hold onto and enjoy the ride. Watch out and get out fast if you see things start turning for the worst.

A little rambling but hope it helps some. I am too liberal. You may get a conservative response and settle somewhere in the middle.

LOL