Rent vs sell calculator
Selling is a one-line decision with a five-figure answer. This puts the two futures side by side: cash now, or cash flow plus a later sale.
Pre-filled with the example unit over five years. Every figure here is before tax.
Holding wins over 5 years, before tax
$55,754.97
- Net proceeds if you sell today
- $122,160.00
- Value after 5 years
- $361,693.51
- Net proceeds then
- $168,374.97
- Cash flow collected meanwhile
- $9,540.00
- Hold total
- $177,914.97
- Advantage to holding
- $55,754.97
The question nobody asks: what is your equity earning
A paid-down rental feels like a machine that prints money. Price it properly: the example unit above nets about $122,000 if sold today and throws off $1,908 a year after real reserves, so that equity is earning roughly 1.6% before appreciation. That may still be the right call — but it should be a decision, not a habit.
Run it against the cash-on-cash tool
Put your net-if-sold figure into the cash-on-cash return calculator as the cash invested. That is the return you are choosing to keep earning.
The tax lines this page deliberately leaves out
- Depreciation recapture on everything allowed or allowable — see the depreciation calculator.
- Capital gains on the appreciation above your adjusted basis.
- The primary-residence exclusion, if you lived there two of the last five years — often the single biggest number on the page.
- A 1031 exchange, which defers rather than removes.
Any one of those can flip the answer. Take this page's figure to a preparer rather than to a listing agent.
The lines that are not in any spreadsheet
A distant unit you cannot inspect, a market you no longer understand, a tenant relationship that has soured, a roof at the end of its life: none of them are in the arithmetic and all of them belong in the decision. Price the roof at least — put it into the turnover cost calculator as a one-off and see whether holding still wins.
Related in the binder
