Should i rent if i am having trouble selling?

what are your rental restrictions? do you need any capital in the apartment for another place? If you need to sell two years from now may be worse and better off selling now... your

risking it if forced to sell as problems worsen

If you don't have any limits on how long you can rent for, I would go ahead and rent, but only if the rent covers all of the expenses. Renting with negative cash flow can be very risky.

Seriously, 2 adults, 2 dogs, 1 baby. Wouldn't it be best to rent out the dogs than to rent out the apartment at a loss? Consider how much these dogs are costing you.

dsegal333 -- rent it out to the dogs? Dumb

Agree about the dogs, dump em

WHat makes you so sure they will have to rent out the place at a loss?

Is it a co-op? If so, now is a really bad time to be trying to sublet. Very few renters are interested in jumping through the hoops necessary to sublet a co-op -- especially when there are so many good deals to be had in rental buildings.

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with empi and dsegal. If your pets are forcing you to move (because seriously, there is NO reason a couple with an infant cannot live comfortably in a one-br) then you might want to consider 86ing them. Think about it -- what's more important - the frickin' dogs or your financial well-being??

im sorry, i have to disagree, moving the dogs out and confusing them is really cruel. it's not their fault that you got them and now you are going to get rid of them, they didnt ask to be bought by you. if you are a good pet owner, you will keep the dogs that you had to have, please dont make your dogs suffer. do you know how awful shelters are? they kill dogs that cant find home and it would be ALL your fault because you made a stupid decision. that is not fair.

man, you guys are cruel. This thread was supposed to be about the humans, not the dogs. For everyoen out there who thinks the OP shoudl get rid of their dogs, go fruck yourself!

Yeah, but if the humans (including a soon-to-be-newborn) are being overrun by the dogs, dumping the dogs bears considering. Sorry if it sounds cruel, but the well-being of one's HUMAN family is vastly more important than the well-being of a pet.

well listen kittensonwheelz, the poster could get rid of the child or his/her significant other and keep the dogs. Either way, someone or some thing is costing too much in this real estate environment.

>Agree about the dogs, dump em<

Friends do not leave friends behind. When t comes to my 4 legged loyal friend, I could give a rats behind about some pocket of air space. I can't see a dog lover giving it their friends that easily.

itarkov, when I was very young, my parents managed just fine in a one bedroom in Forest Hills for several years....... and it was 5 of us. :)

"If you don't have any limits on how long you can rent for, I would go ahead and rent, but only if the rent covers all of the expenses. Renting with negative cash flow can be very risky."

That doesnt make any sense. The vast majority of condos and coops being offered for rent wont even come close to covering the owners expenses unless the apartment is completely paid off. Perhaps a small, non doorman studio would allow the owner to make a profit by renting, but in most cases its just a "stop the bleeding" measure. The only way the owner wont lose money renting his his/her apartment is if he/she has absolutely no mortgage/loan payments to make. I suppose if you have a $300k studio it might be possible, but not with any apartment worth much more than that.

itarkov- I think the question you need to ask yourself is why haven't you found a buyer? Is the apt overpriced? Are you trying to sell it on your own?Is your broker not doing all they can do to sell it or is just the state of the RE market?
The rental market isn't great right now either. i would only suggest renting out your apt if the rent would cover your mortgage & maint.
Try posting the apt on Craigslist under "no fee- by owner" & see if you get any bites. If you can't find a renter on your own call a few brokers & see what they suggest. Generally, it doesn't cost you anything to list a rental with a broker since the tenant pays the brokers fee. however, in this market, a lot of landlords are paying 1 month twds the brokers fee so that the broker can offer the apt as "no fee". Worst case scenario- you use a broker to try & rent your apt & it costs you 1 month's rent.
sophia.anzaroot@gmail.com
http://www.prudentialelliman.com/mainsite/agents/agents.aspx?BID=SOPA

get realistic with pricing and you might find a buyer. use the rent alternative just a worse case scenario. i am assuming here that you bought around 2000 so that you could drop the prices to match pricing during 2003-2004. tons of assumptions here! so the answer is: depends how flexible you could be with pricing.

it also depends on how many liquid assets do you have. the worse thing that could happen is that you rent it out and then for some reason you find yourself needing to sell it at much lower prices that todays. if you can weather a long deep storm (5 years or so) thanks to extra liquid assets that you have, then you could just rent it out. do not assume that you will have pricing power as a landlord. there's going to be tons of rentals coming along competing with yours.

We are in the same exact situation (no dogs though!) and are going to aggressively try to sell. Our thinking is as follows:

1.) Restriction on rental term (not sure if this applies to you) - We have a coop and can only rent for 2 years. We believe that AT BEST, the market will be where it is now 2 years from now, if not a lot lower. The recovery is going to be very slow (our opionion) and therefore renting it out in hopes of getting a better price in 2 years seems very risky.

2.) Coop board rental interview (again not sure if this applies to you) - I agree with the other posters that given the state of the rental market (many options available and getting cheaper by the day), tenants are not likely going to want to go through unnecessary interviews unless they absolutely have to.

3.) Cash flow - In our case, the rent would cover our expenses but not sure what your situation looks like.

4.) Capital needs - Although we believe that this is not the opportune time to buy with the exception of some very unusual deals, you may want to consider buying down the line without having to face a fire sale on your current apartment. Also, not too many people are GUARANTEED job security these days so you don't want to be forced to sell if something unfortunate happens.

5.) Diversification - Even if you can eventually buy in a year or two and carry both places, do you really want that much of your assets tied up in real estate?

If you want to post a link to your apartment, maybe we can help you figure out why it is not selling (not that anything is these days...) Would you be selling at a loss?

5) is huge but could also be expressed in terms of liquidity. you don't want your net worth to be illiquid in uncertain times like this (every asset class besides cash becomes more illiquid than usual and pricing goes against you). liquifying your portfolio as much as possible if you believe that things could turn ugly is a good strategy. cash is king.

do not anchor your attention on how much more $ you could have made if selling at the peak. if you end up with spare cash to bottom fish within the few years you could easily make that up and then some more. "nobody ever went broke by taking profits".

I've lived in tight quarters like yours and luckily, we sold before the crash. But if we hadn't, we would have been resigned to stay put for awhile. Basically, if you don't really have to sell now, don't, unless you are willing to accept 2003 or earlier going rates for comparable apartments.

I think the missed opportunity of not having sold at the peak is what's making this very difficult for so many people. What's done is done. No need to lose less while you fantasize about what could have been. It will be YEARS before we see those levels again so I am not sure if you are prepared to wait quite that long.