Q: Although we have our home up for sale, we have so many people interested in renting that we are considering taking it off the market to have it rented, as we need to have monies coming in to cover the mortgage.

We had it on the market in 2008, and took it off and rented it for awhile then. When we relisted it last year, we listed it at $50,000 less than we had it listed for in 2008. I am anticipating that the market will get better if we take it off and rent it now and then sell it at a later date. Do you see this happening? --Nicolae

A: Ah, if only I possessed the real estate crystal ball, that ultimate holy grail of economists, media pundits, politicos and real estate consumers alike. Unfortunately, I don't. And that seems to be what you want and need: a prediction about whether to sell later will be to sell higher.

There is no way to know whether this will be the case for certain, especially in the fairly near term. If you were telling me you planned to rent the place out for 10 years, I'd tell you it's possible that it'd be easier to sell then. But next year? The year after? No can do.  more...