Posting with throwaway as to maintain privacy. Sorry for the overload of information but I was trying to include everything relevant.
My husband's mother passed away & he is the only beneficiary. She had a home with a tax value of $55,000 (paid $65,000 in 2004). We are trying to decide whether to keep the home to sell, or rent, or let it go to foreclosure. A realtor has said she would list it for $67,000. We had heard homes that can be used as rentals are selling well in our area, BUT there are 2 similar houses for sale in the immediate area (1 that has been listed for 100 days, so might not sell anytime soon). $44,000 is owed on the mortgage still. No other major assets. Her death was traumatic, so about $15,000 is owed in medical bills (no insurance, I plan on discussing reduced payoff with them). The home is also in a floodplain.
We have worked hard to save & could payoff the total $60,000 owed (while maintaining our emergency fund), but don't want to do this if it is a terrible investment. If we estimate $150/mo maintenance, $42/mo taxes, $100/mo flood insurance, $500/mo for her mortgage --we would need to get about $800/mo rent to pay ourselves back, which would be a stretch in that area. Maintenance I estimated high as there are several improvements we would want to make to the property.
Selling or renting both seem like bad ideas at this point, but it also seems crazy to throw away the money his mom put into this home. Do we have any other option? What would you do in this situation?
Another detail, we haven't paid on the mortgage, so in our state (NC) a foreclosure wouldn't attach to us.
Submitted December 20, 2017 at 10:39AM by rentalinheritance http://ift.tt/2kQVcgL
