Field instrument · St. 06 · PCS rent-vs-sell
Orders in hand. Rent it out, or sell it?
The usual back-of-napkin math is rent minus mortgage payment. That number lies. A rental that looks $300 ahead goes underwater the first time it sits vacant for six weeks or needs a condenser. This runs the version with real reserves in it: vacancy, management, maintenance, and the leasing fee nobody budgets for. If the honest number is negative, it will say so.
Run it
Example numbers. Edit them.
Assumptions, preset, edit if you know better
Illustrative reserves, not a market read. Use your own.
How to read the verdict
- 01
Clears the reserves
Rent covers PITI plus vacancy, management, maintenance, and leasing reserves with at least $150 a month left. A rental you can hold from another duty station without feeding it.
- 02
Thin margin
Positive but under $150 a month. Works only if nothing breaks. One bad month eats the year. Keeping the house is a choice about the asset, not the cash flow.
- 03
Negative
Rent does not cover the payment plus real reserves. Renting means paying to hold. Selling, or a rate and rent recheck, may beat it. No appreciation promises here.
- 04
What we do not count
Appreciation, rent growth, and tax effects. They can help or hurt, and a tool that bakes them in is guessing on your behalf. The reserves are the honest floor.
Want the street-level version?
The calculator runs on your rent estimate. The real question is what your street actually rents for and how fast. We manage doors for military owners who PCS'd out of Fort Worth, so the long-distance version of this problem is our normal day. Leave your info and I will pull live comps for your address and give you the honest zone read. The read is free either way, whether the answer is rent it or sell it.
Orders in hand? Tell me about the house.
You get the numbers, sourced and dated. What you do with them is up to you.
sell it or rent it? run the numbersgoogle reviewstrec license 0845090