Earlier this year I had the opportunity to buy a 2/2 that needed to be moved about 20 miles. It looked like a great candidate to use as rental. Several challenges came up during the move and the remodel after arriving at the new location which caused me to invest significantly more than initially intended into the project.

I thought no big deal I'll pivot to a "flip" and sell the property as I've had success doing this in the past.

Fast forward to today. House has been listed about 60 days and I haven't got a contract that I would accept. Comps say I'm all over the price. Have had one verbal offer of essentially what I had in the property and 2 young couples that both want it but can't qualify due to income in current rate environment.

It's left me with several options to try to decide between. The house is essentially a new build after the remodel. Has hardi siding, metal roof, new ac, and all new plumbing due to being moved.

Do I
A. Keep trying to sell at what I feel it's a reasonable price and make some and get all my cash back
B. Cut price to below market and "breakeven" and recoup my initial investment
C. Refinance to get what I feel is the amount of my savings I would be comfortable with back out and rent at a 100 or 200 per month negative cash flow

Wife isn't too thrilled with B or C but I'm impatient and struggling with A myself as every month my cost basis goes up with carrying costs

Would love some input from you folks with more rental experience

It really depends on your personal financial situation. I don't like A. The market has already told you what it thinks of your price.

If it were me, id do B. Get your money back and move on. Consider the experience as your profit.

C isn't a terrible idea if your current monthly income makes the loss insignificant. Very good chance that in 10 years you'll be happy you stuck it out. Just be aware if the market gets worse, your option to sell could get worse before it gets better.

If it were me, id do some small price drops. Gets a fresh email sent out to potential buyers.

Negative cash flow only works if..

A. Long term hold where years 3+ turn positive and you can potentially refinance then.
B. You don't mind wearing a loser around your neck and hope the FED slashes rates and values rocket and you flip for a nice profit.

Things to know..

1. Is it currently insured? If so, at what cost? Be prepared for further increases.
2. Do you have any in place debt?
3. Is the area improving, losing value, or going stagnant?

Owner finance to one of the younger couples?

We've never considered it because we're afraid of them starting renovations, defaulting & us getting the property back with lots of unfinished projects - this happened to my parents once.

My thought was to rent to one of the young couples. Let rates, their savings, and their income improve simultaneously for 1-2 years and then sell it to them.

We bought another rental property earlier this year. We paid more than normal for it but it was pretty nice, great location + it has a nice garage apartment: 2 rents made it worth the price. We did our numbers and figured out we'd do Ok. Then, like you, we started some renovations, had to have some trees removed, went a little crazy on kitchen & bath renos, etc. - end result we are into it more than we thought we'd be. We put it on the market and it took 3 months to rent which is normally unheard of for us.

We were considering selling it while we'd still - hopefully - be able to get our money back, but have the main house rented now. Working on the garage. Oddly enough the garage apartment was the reason people weren't interested. We thought it was a smart move for us. Funny - the house next door is closer to the house than the detached garage at the back of the property but it seemed to matter. If that continues to be a "problem" going forward, this will be the first of our inventory to sell. At this point, we consider it a miss but are willing to hold it for a couple years to see what happens.