Title says it all. Would yall rather keep a producing rental property, or sell and buy land?

Back story, moved to Tennessee for work several years ago. Kept my house in Tx and been renting it out ever since. I currently have roughly 350k in equity in it. If I sold the house I could put those funds towards land here in TN and buy outright. I could get 50-100 decent, unimproved acres of wooded land that would be great for hunting and raising my two boys. The property would be completely recreational.

I feel like the fiscally responsible decision is to keep the house, but best decision to raise my family is to have the opportunity to raise my boys with opportunity to hunt and explore.

Thought and opinions?

My initial thought was similar to the poster above. Family memories > a financial asset.

On second thought I'd consider if you could refi and take $ out of the house while renting and use that money to buy something. $350k of equity implies you could pull a decent chunk out and the relative breakeven should be pretty easy to calculate.

Maybe you can have the best of both?

Pulling equity out of the rental probably won't pencil. Guessing the note is low 3s maybe high 2s and you have to refi all of the old note to the new rate of high 7s. And max cash out is 75% of an investment property. Minus 2-3% closing costs.

OP my uniformed opinion is we are not going to see good value appreciation in Texas the next 24-30 months. Your mileage may vary. I think we stay flat. You have to see what TN compares to.

To me it's sell or hold. Your family is what decides. I had family land as my kids grew up and very valuable to me.

The land would be for recreational use only. Wife is too attached to Target to convince her to move that far away.

Agree with the above poster that a refi won't make much sense. Current rate is mid 3s.

The land itself should increase in value over time. Not near as much as a house but I've seen land prices increase here in just the three years we've lived here.

I too grew up with family land, and not having access to it here in TN is one of my driving reasons to want to get land and provide same childhood I had.

Not a month goes by that I dont consider selling our land and using the funds to pay off the rest of our rentals and personal home. It would free up the cash flow to pretty much vacation however we wanted. And our monthly budget would be a lot less stressed. But then what would we do the other 11 months out of the year when we are home but no longer able to use the land? Maybe Im being selfish in holding it but for now I just tell the wife that it's guaranteed college savings for the kids.

Its really just a personal choice. If you can swing it, go for it. Just dont overpay, and you'll do OK at worst.

Following this thread. Kid on the way, and we go back and forth every day. Financially, I'm thinking we would be crazy to sell a cash producing asset to buy land. But, having a property to call our own and share with our future children is somewhat priceless. And like others have said, they're not making any more of it, and it (land) is only getting more expensive everywhere.

This thread is relevant to two of my favorite stolen quotes.

Two things they aren't making more of… time and land.

It is just money. You'll either make more or you won't.

I'm just really jealous that $350k will buy him 50-100 acres. Land prices in Texas are r.e. Tarted.

What is the yield on that $350k in equity? Super important piece of the puzzle.