Free calculator
Rent vs. sell calculator
Weigh keeping a property as a rental — cash flow, appreciation, and loan paydown — against selling now and investing the proceeds. Every figure is an estimate from the assumptions you enter.
The short answer
Last updated: July 2026
Whether to rent or sell depends on comparing two paths: keeping the property (future equity from appreciation, cumulative net cash flow, and loan paydown) against selling now and investing the net proceeds at a return you expect. This tool projects both over a horizon you set. It’s a simplified estimate that ignores taxes — not advice.
After the estimate:
Self-management softwareRent vs. sell calculator
Keep it as a rental, or sell and invest?
Project keeping the property — appreciation plus net cash flow, less the mortgage — against selling now and investing the proceeds at a return you set.
Current property value
$
Mortgage balance
$
Monthly rent
$
Monthly operating expenses
$
Mortgage, taxes, insurance, upkeep — everything you pay to run the rental each month.
Cost to sell
7%
0%
12%
Assumed appreciation / yr
3%
0%
10%
Assumed investment return / yr
6%
0%
12%
Horizon
10 yrs
1 yr
30 yrs
Input-driven result
Your inputs
Formula
Result below
Keep it — estimated equity in 10 yrs
$558,762
Value grown to $604,762, plus $204,000 cumulative net cash flow, less the $250,000 mortgage.
Sell now — proceeds invested 10 yrs
$301,758
$168,500 net proceeds grown at 6% a year.
Keeping it comes out ahead by
$257,005
The gap between the two paths at these assumptions.
Value paths after 10 years
Keep: projected value
$558,762
Sell: invested proceeds
$301,758
Keep path advantage
$257,005
Estimate based on your inputs. Not a promise of results.
Estimate only, from the assumptions you enter. It ignores taxes (including capital gains and depreciation recapture on a sale), rent growth, major repairs, refinancing, and loan principal paydown. Confirm the after-tax picture with a CPA before deciding.
How it works
How this tool works.
When you own a property you could rent out or sell, the decision hangs on numbers that play out over years: the rent it clears, the equity you build as the loan is paid down, and how much the property (or an alternative investment) might appreciate. Held in your head, those trade-offs are almost impossible to compare fairly.
This calculator lays both paths side by side. Enter the property’s value, mortgage, rent, and expenses, plus your own assumptions for appreciation and what selling now and investing the proceeds might return — and it projects a rough multi-year comparison. Every result is an illustration built entirely from the rates you enter, not a forecast of what will actually happen.
Make the result useful
Compare two complete scenarios, not just two prices
Selling can convert equity to cash but carries transaction costs and ends future rental income. Renting can preserve optionality but requires modeling vacancy, maintenance, management, and the financing that remains.
Use the same time horizon for both sides. A one-year rental cash-flow snapshot cannot be fairly compared with a sale number that includes a one-time commission and closing cost without stating what happens next.
Questions landlords ask
Questions about this tool and its limits.
Built by a landlord who's done every one of these jobs by hand.
Aptoria was built by an owner-operator managing a Brooklyn portfolio — the 11pm calls, the awkward rent texts, the April receipt-pile — not by a software team guessing at the problem.
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