Skip to content

Rent vs Sell Calculator

Compare keeping and renting your home against selling now and reinvesting the proceeds, with a year-by-year wealth projection and the crossover year.

$
$
%
years
$
%
%
%
$
$
%
%
%
years
Xfin

Wealth if you rent

$384,654.52

Wealth if you sell
$301,757.84
Rent minus sell
$82,896.68
Net proceeds if you sell today
$168,500.00
Crossover year
No crossover within the horizon
At this horizon
Renting builds more wealth over this horizon
Projected wealth: renting vs selling

Quick answer: With the example inputs this page loads by default, the headline result (Wealth if you rent) comes to $384,654.52. Compare keeping and renting your home against selling now and reinvesting the proceeds, with a year-by-year wealth projection and the crossover year. Change any input above and every figure updates instantly in your browser.

Your inputs never leave your browser, and nothing is stored. See our privacy policy .

Fact-check: results on this page are verified against an independently coded reference oracle that covers all 106 calculators on this site. See how we verify .

Whether to rent out your home or sell it comes down to which path builds more wealth over your time horizon. Selling frees your equity today to reinvest, while renting keeps you exposed to appreciation and rental cash flow but ties that equity up in the property. This calculator projects both paths year by year, comparing your wealth if you rent against your wealth if you sell and reinvest, and finds the crossover.

What this result means

The two lines are your projected wealth under each choice, both measured after a sale so the comparison is like-for-like: the sell path sells today and reinvests, and the rent path is valued as if you sold in that year. Whichever line is higher at your horizon is the path that builds more wealth under your assumptions. A crossover year means the lead changes: selling often wins early because the freed equity starts compounding right away, while renting tends to catch up over a longer hold as the home appreciates and the loan is paid down. The result swings hardest on two guesses, the home's appreciation rate and the return you would earn on reinvested money, so it is worth testing a pessimistic and an optimistic case for each. This model also ignores income taxes, depreciation recapture, and capital-gains treatment, which can matter a lot on an investment property. Treat it as a wealth-building comparison, not tax or investment advice.

Assumptions

  • The comparison is like-for-like: both paths are measured as after-sale wealth. The sell path sells today; the rent path is valued as if you sold at each year, so the same cost-to-sell percentage is applied whenever a sale happens.
  • Sell path: net proceeds today are the current value minus the mortgage payoff minus the cost to sell (a percent of the value, covering agent commission, closing, and transfer taxes, mirroring the seller net proceeds calculator). Those proceeds are reinvested and grow at the reinvestment return you set. Net proceeds are not floored, so an underwater sale is a negative starting balance.
  • Rent path: the home value grows at the appreciation rate, and the existing loan amortizes over the years left on it (the shared amortization schedule gives the payment and the balance each year). Equity at a given year is the appreciated value minus selling costs minus the remaining balance.
  • Rental cash flow is the gross rent minus a vacancy allowance (a percent of gross rent), minus operating costs (maintenance and management, each a percent of the rent collected after vacancy), minus annual property tax and insurance, minus the mortgage principal and interest for that year. It is held flat in nominal terms and is not floored, so a money-losing rental drags the rent path down. Once the loan is paid off within the horizon, the payment stops and cash flow rises.
  • Each year's rental cash flow is reinvested at the reinvestment return and added to a growing portfolio, so the rent path wealth is the equity at sale plus that reinvested cash-flow portfolio.
  • The crossover year is the first year the leading path flips relative to year one. It is blank when one path leads for the entire horizon. The verdict compares the two wealth figures at the horizon (renting builds more, selling builds more, or about even).
  • All figures are in nominal future dollars, not discounted to today's dollars. Appreciation, rent, costs, and the reinvestment return are steady values you set, held constant over the hold, and each result is rounded to the nearest cent.
  • Not modeled: income taxes on rental income and on investment gains, depreciation and depreciation recapture, capital-gains tax and the primary-residence exclusion on a sale, rent growth over time, large capital expenditures, and any change in these rates over time. On an investment property these tax effects can be significant.
  • Results are highly sensitive to the appreciation and reinvestment-return assumptions, and small changes can flip the verdict. This is an estimate for educational purposes only, not financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.

Key terms

Definitions for the terms this calculator uses, in our finance glossary .

Rent vs sell, and how it is calculated

If you are moving and already own a home, you have two ways to turn it into future wealth: sell it now and reinvest the proceeds, or keep it, rent it out, and sell later. This calculator projects both paths year by year and shows which builds more wealth, and where the leading path changes. It is the exit decision that mirrors the rent-vs-buy comparison, run on a home you already own.

Same finish line: both paths end in a sale

To compare fairly, both paths are measured as after-sale wealth. The sell path sells today. The rent path is valued as if you sold at each year, so the same selling-cost percentage is charged whenever a sale happens. Without this, keeping the home would look artificially good because its selling costs would never be counted.

Sell path

Selling now frees your equity to invest elsewhere:

net proceeds today = current value - mortgage payoff - value x cost-to-sell%

wealth if you sell (year t) = net proceeds today x (1 + reinvestment return)^t

The cost to sell is a single percent of the value, covering agent commission, closing, and transfer taxes (the same convention as the seller net proceeds calculator). Net proceeds are not floored: an underwater sale is a negative starting balance that still carries an opportunity cost.

Rent path

Keeping the home keeps you exposed to appreciation and to leverage (you control the whole property with only your equity), and it produces rental cash flow:

equity at sale (year t) = appreciated value x (1 - cost-to-sell%) - remaining loan balance

rental cash flow = rent x (1 - vacancy%) - operating costs - property tax - insurance - mortgage P&I

Operating costs are maintenance and management, each a percent of the rent collected after vacancy. The home value grows at the appreciation rate, and the loan amortizes over the years left on it (the same shared schedule the mortgage calculator uses), so the balance falls and equity builds. The cash flow is held flat in nominal terms, is not floored (a money-losing rental drags the path down), and is reinvested each year at the reinvestment return:

cash-flow portfolio (year t) = portfolio x (1 + reinvestment return) + this year's cash flow

wealth if you rent (year t) = equity at sale (t) + cash-flow portfolio (t)

The crossover

The two wealth lines often cross. Selling tends to lead early, because the freed equity starts compounding immediately, while renting tends to catch up over a longer hold as appreciation and loan paydown build equity. The crossover year is the first year the leading path flips relative to year one; when one path leads the whole horizon, there is no crossover. All compounding runs through the shared time-value routine, so no growth formula is duplicated in this calculator.

Worked example

Using the defaults: a $450,000 home, a $250,000 mortgage balance at 6.5 percent with 25 years left, $2,800 monthly rent, 5 percent vacancy, 5 percent maintenance and 8 percent management (of collected rent), $4,500 property tax, $1,800 insurance, 3 percent appreciation, a 7 percent cost to sell, a 6 percent reinvestment return, and a 10-year horizon.

  • net proceeds today = $450,000 - $250,000 - 7% of $450,000 ($31,500) = $168,500
  • wealth if you sell at year 10 = $168,500 x 1.06^10 = $301,757.84
  • wealth if you rent at year 10 = about $384,654.52 (equity from a home appreciated to roughly $604,700, net of selling costs and the paid-down balance, plus the reinvested rental cash flow)

Renting builds more here, about $82,897 more, and it leads for the whole 10 years, so there is no crossover. Push appreciation down or the reinvestment return up and the sell path can overtake, producing a crossover, which is exactly the sensitivity the interpretation calls out.

What this includes and excludes

It includes both wealth paths, the like-for-like sale at the horizon, appreciation, loan paydown, reinvested rental cash flow, and the crossover. It excludes income tax on rental income and investment gains, depreciation and depreciation recapture, capital-gains tax and the primary-residence exclusion on a sale, rent growth over time, and large capital expenditures. On a former home converted to a rental those tax effects can be large, so treat this as a pre-tax wealth comparison. This is an estimate for education, not financial, legal, or tax advice.

Sources

  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, guidance on buying, selling, and owning a home, at consumerfinance.gov (transaction costs and what selling a home involves).
  • Internal Revenue Service, Topic No. 701 (sale of your home) and Publication 527 (residential rental property), on the tax treatment this pre-tax model deliberately leaves out.

Frequently asked questions

Should I rent out my house or sell it?
It depends on which path builds more wealth over how long you plan to hold. Selling frees your equity to reinvest right away, which tends to win over short horizons. Renting keeps you exposed to home appreciation and rental cash flow and usually catches up over a longer hold as the home appreciates and the loan is paid down. This calculator projects both paths year by year so you can see which leads at your horizon and where they cross.
How do I compare renting versus selling my home?
Put both choices in the same terms: wealth after a sale. For selling, take your net proceeds today (value minus payoff minus selling costs) and grow them at the return you would earn elsewhere. For renting, add the equity you would have if you sold later (appreciated value minus selling costs minus the remaining loan) to the rental cash flow you collected and reinvested along the way. Comparing those two totals at your horizon is the fair way to decide.
What is the crossover point in a rent vs sell decision?
The crossover is the year the leading path changes. Selling and reinvesting often leads early because the freed-up equity starts compounding immediately, while renting can pull ahead later as appreciation and loan paydown build equity and the reinvested cash flow grows. If the calculator shows no crossover, one path leads for the entire horizon you chose.
Does this account for taxes on selling or renting?
No. This is a pre-tax wealth comparison. It does not model income tax on rental income or investment gains, depreciation and depreciation recapture, or capital-gains tax and the primary-residence exclusion on a sale. Those can be significant, especially on a former primary home converted to a rental, so treat the result as a starting point and confirm the tax picture with a professional.
What does my result mean?
Whichever wealth figure is higher at your horizon is the path that builds more under your assumptions, and the rent-minus-sell figure is the size of the gap. Because the answer leans heavily on the appreciation and reinvestment-return you assume, test a conservative and an optimistic value for each. If the verdict flips easily, the decision is close and other factors such as taxes, effort, and your risk tolerance should carry more weight.

Related calculators

Learn how this works

New to this topic? Our companion guide explains it in plain language: Should You Sell Your House or Rent It Out?

By Sam Sage Last reviewed .