Welcome to the forums!
Short selling is where the bank is willing to accept less on an offer than what is left on the note: if you can get out for 100K (or thereabouts, some costs involved with selling a home) you're not upside down to the point where short-selling makes sense: it'd be different if you were far more underwater as happened with a bunch of houses out where I'm at in S. Cali. Likewise if you can pay the difference from cash, you're fine credit wise. It doesn't sound like you're living paycheck to paycheck currently, but if you don't have a cash reserve, given your income and if you're talking raise, go with a cheaper apartment for a bit in the new neighborhood, cut some expenses, pool a bit of cash, then get out from under the house. If you do get the relo package there will be some time period in it to sell the house, and depending where you are prices have been going up again and likely will continue to do so. Least where I am, it's unquestionably a sellers market and has been for more than the last year.
I think from what you described the benefit to moving is overwhelming compared to a few extra K saved over the long term, and maybe even from a short-term perspective too.
That said, I've never looked into it, but there's GOT to be plenty of shops which will manage the tenancy for you for some fee amount if you're remote and you decide to rent it out. The bigger question is when / if you're looking to buy another home, as you can't claim rental income on the mortgage app unless you've had it for 2 years as I understand it and it might kill the mortgage app if you can't clear the DTI hurdle with both houses during the time period where you can't claim rental income.
@Anonymous wrote:Definatly not living pay check to paycheck I have about 2 months salary in reserve. My wife and I are curretnly sitting at about 660 credit score from a recent pull. not the greatest but not the worst. I do not mind renting for a few years instead of owning the area of Texas I would be moving too is not a real estate mecca like Houston. we could find places to cut our expences as well I would say only the car payment and my student loans are set in stone. I would probably have to use 1/4 of my reserve to make the house sellable paint ect.
Ah do that then, whether you sell or rent a Short Sale absolutely shouldn't be in the cards. That's a major derogatory unfortunately (especially when we're talking home qualification) and not worth trying to save a few K honestly, and to be blunt the bank wouldn't accept it anyway in your situation and you'd be out the additional money plus fees if I understand the process right.
Yeah, depending where you move in Texas (though I thought nearly all the Oil IT infrastructure was there in Houston, I actually may be one of the few folks that liked Houston I guess when I was there other than the humidity) it might be more challenging to own a home, but choosing to rent a place out is a non-trivial decision. If you're stuck renting for a period of time in the new location, I think it's absolutely worth looking into (real estate doesn't always go up in the short term, but in the long term it likely will short of massive economic collapse, and your mortgage is fixed... sounds like a decent income opportunity to me personally and Houston is going to be economically relevant for a long time to come).