Should I Sell or Rent My House? Compare the Real Numbers

Keeping a home as a rental sounds like the safe, “smart” move until you run the numbers against what the market might do next. We break down a renting versus selling comparison chart built to answer one specific question: should you sell now or hold the property as a rental for three years? If you like seeing the math, there are visuals available too, so you can follow along instead of trying to imagine the figures. 

We start with the bottom line scenarios that matter most for real estate decision-making. What happens if your local housing market drops 20% over the next three years? After you count rental income and then subtract the real costs of being a landlord, including property management fees and other expenses, the “rent it out” plan can fall behind selling now by a surprisingly large amount. Then we look at the other side: if prices rise about 5%, the additional benefit of waiting may be much smaller than most people expect. 

From there, we zoom out to talk about why the upside forecast is conservative today and why downside risk is still real in many markets. We also show how this tool is personalized based on your home value, expected rent, mortgage, expenses, and local trends, because a one-size-fits-all rent-versus-sell calculator is never enough. 

Finally, we go beyond renting and compare different home selling options side by side, including FSBO, a conventional listing, and CPO paths such as a cash offer, so you can focus on estimated net proceeds and pick what fits your goals. If this helped you think more clearly, subscribe, share the episode with a homeowner friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Transcript

Where To See The Visuals

The Rent Versus Sell Chart

The 20% Decline Scenario

The 5% Upside And Forecast

How We Personalize The Numbers

Comparing Ways To Sell

Get Your Personalized Chart

SPEAKER_00 0:16

If you'd like to see the visuals for this show, visit the show at realestate newsradio.com. That's realestate newsradio.com and click on the YouTube button. Hi, it's Rowena Paxton here. This is our new renting versus selling comparison chart, and it's built to help you answer one important question. Should you sell now or hold the property as a rental for three years? What this chart does is compare selling today with renting the home out for three years using estimated rental income and a couple of different market scenarios. Now let's go straight to the bottom line. This chart shows two key outcomes if you keep the home as a rental for three years instead of selling it now. First, what happens if the market declines by 20%? That's this one right here. And if you're listening on the radio show, there is a video of this. So you can see all the pictures as well. So you're not just listening to me talking about the figures. So if the market declines by 20%, and where are we getting that from? It's not, you know, made up figures here. I'll show you that in a second. So what happens if it declines by 20% is when you take all the rental income into account and then the fees you're paying, everything else, you could lose about$83,000 by renting it out instead of selling it now. That's in this particular situation. I didn't choose this one, by the way, just to show this scenario. So it's not just some made-up worst-case scenario. Many markets are already under pressure, so this is a real risk in today's market. Now let's look at the other side. What happens if the market rises by 5%? In that case, the gain from renting for three years instead of selling now may only be about$600 to$2,500. So here's your$2,500 right here. I've rounded everything to make it easier on the ears, and$600 down here. The reason we're only projecting the 5% here, because so you're probably saying already, oh, well, wait a second, she said decline of 20%, but she's only going up 5%. So the reason we're only showing the 5% increase on the upside, but a 25-20% decline on the downside is this. There are now only a few markets left, about a third of the country, mainly in the northeast, where prices are still increasing. And even those markets are expected to stabilize as they follow the rest of the country. They're increasing a lot less than they were. So the upside forecast is conservative because strong appreciation is now the exception, not the norm. On the downside, over a three-year holding period, a 20% drop is still a very real possibility in many markets. In North Carolina, for example, not across North Carolina, but in our area in Western North Carolina, we dropped anywhere between 4% and 10% last year, and it's forecast the same for this year. So, you know, that's a very real outcome. It's not bad. We just, you know, act differently according to what the market's doing. And of course, for buyers, it's wonderful. They've been asking for prices to decrease for a long time. So this is why this chart matters. It helps you compare holding the home as a rental for three years versus selling now so you can make a more informed decision. And of course, this is not a one size fits all. It depends on your home value, your expected rental income, your mortgage, your expenses, and what your local market is doing. That's why we personalize it. This, by the way, is based on 15% as a property management fee. That's pretty low. It's often 20%. On top of the rental comparison, we also show you your estimated net proceeds depending on how you sell. That's for sale by owner, conventional, conventional CPO, a cash CPO. So you'll get all of this in one. So for example, on this sample, in case you're listening on the radio show, on a$650,000 home, the estimated net for sale by owner, that's when you sell it yourself, is about$538. That's when you take all the expenses out, real estate expenses, everything else. This chart will show you all of this that you can find at cashcpo.com. Now you're not just comparing renting versus selling, you're also comparing the different ways of selling side by side. The conventional sales about$520. We call that grandma's listing because it's the way it's always been done. The conventional CPO is about$533. Cash CPO is about$5.57. It's not always that cash CPO is more, it just is in this particular case than your FISBO over here, and you'll get a whole chart showing that, how however it uh plays out. If you'd like your own personalized version, go to cashcpo.com. We'll send you your renting versus selling comparison chart. That's this one right here, along with your full market value offer with lots more details on that chart. So you can compare everything side by side and decide which path makes the most sense for you. It's about you at the end of the day. This is your probably the biz biggest asset you have. Go to cashcpo.com, that's cashcpo.com, and get yours today. This is available anywhere in the continental USA. If you'd like to see the visuals for this show, visit the show at realestate newsradio.com. That's realestate newsradio.com and click on the YouTube button.