3% bought on o'ahu has been sitting for 10 months

Should I Sell or Rent?

I'm at my wits end and so depressed, I have no idea what to do anymore. Here's the bullet points:

▪︎ bought in 21 over asking at 560k. No renovations since 05, super dated but it was the best we could get during the storm of all cash offers and bidding wars.

▪︎ renovated ½ of the house while living there. put our house for sale with 2 agents (big regret tbh is this even normal?), Aug 24.

▪︎ first week had 4-5 offers, negotiating, etc. And landed on 627k 45 day escrow.

▪︎ oct 24 husband moved overseas, i moved to the mainland to go back to school, but temporary living with family.

▪︎ 1 week before closing in oct, appraisal came back at 580k and buyer had ZERO cash. We backed out since we seemed to have good traction before and realtors said we had backup offer.

▪︎ since Oct 24, radio silence. Multiple showings, open houses, nothing. Not just for our home, they did "block party" open houses with a handful of other houses and nobody showed in fall/winter 24. Realtors blamed election and holiday seasons.

▪︎ price reduction to 585k spring 25 which was painful considering that escrow.

▪︎ one offer for VA assumption, no additional cash. We would've had to pay 25k AND our VA benefit taken from us. Denied.

What was supposed to be a temporary living situation with my family has now been longer term. I regret not listing earlier but we were optimistic of the market when we first listed. We are paying SO much money to have this house sit and were against renting since what we pay vs. rental market didn't seem promising (we pay $3900 for everything, and neighbors for the same floor plan are going for $2600-$3400, most likely owners from 05 who refinanced in 2020). We have low savings rn from it sitting where I'm afraid we cannot fix anything major if we had renter maintenence.

What would you do in my situation? Get new realtors? Keep it on the market? List for rent even if its too high? List for rent at competitive pricing and not profit but lighten the financial load? I'm so unwell from this experience and just want to move on.

Posted May 5, 2025, 12:38 AM UTC

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