Should I sell my rental and stop working?

Type your numbers. Set the after-tax sale proceeds, the rental's net monthly income (after mortgage, tax, maintenance, insurance, and vacancy), and when you'd sell. The calculator shows the reduced target the keep path aims at, the full target the sell path aims at, and how the Optional Date differs between them.

The keep path aims at a reduced target. Say your rental produces $12,000/yr net. At a 4% withdrawal rate, that's $300,000 the portfolio doesn't have to fund on its own. Instead of $1.875M (25 × $75K spending), the portfolio only has to reach about $1.575M. Once it does, rental and portfolio together cover spending.

The sell path aims at the full target. Rental cash flow stops, so the portfolio has to fund the whole $75K/yr and needs to hit $1.875M. It gets a head start from the after-tax proceeds landing all at once.

Which path wins depends on the specific numbers. Higher net rent tilts toward keeping. Larger sale proceeds relative to annual rental tilt toward selling. Longer horizon to Optional tilts toward selling, because compounding on the lump sum has more time to work. Read the "not modeled" list before trusting the result on a big decision.

The same math runs in the Scenarios Lab through the Sell-the-House scenario, which works for any real-estate holding you'd convert to invested principal. Layer it against your other levers to see the combined effect.

Same engine as the rest of the app.

Each month, your balance grows and absorbs your normal contribution:

The keep path checks the balance against the reduced target every month. The sell path checks it against the reduced target until the sale month, then against the full target from the sale month on.

• Proceeds are after capital gains, depreciation recapture, closing costs, and mortgage payoff. Enter the net.
• Rental net income is after mortgage, maintenance, taxes, insurance, and vacancy. Not the gross rent.
• Rental income is treated as covering part of your yearly spending (target-reducing), not as extra you're saving on top. If you reinvest every dollar of cash flow, add that amount to Monthly contribution and set Rental net to zero.
• 7% real return on both the invested balance and the sale proceeds. Real-estate appreciation past the sale date isn't projected here.
• Rent, expenses, and property value are held flat in real dollars. In real life rent may grow with (or lag) inflation, expenses can spike, and mortgage principal reduces each month. None of that is captured.
• No new expenses on the invested side. If selling would force a real-estate replacement (buying a primary residence), model that separately.
• No taxes on portfolio rebalancing or withdrawal. See the methodology page for the current limits.

What if the rental appreciates faster than the market? Then keeping looks better than the model shows. Real estate that appreciates at 5%+ real for a decade beats a diversified index, and leverage amplifies that. It happens; it isn't the base rate.

Does the model include mortgage amortization? No. Principal you'd otherwise be paying down over time isn't captured on the keep side. The sale proceeds you enter should reflect paying off whatever's left today.

What about a 1031 exchange? Not modeled. If you're rolling into another rental, "sell" isn't the right question. You're not converting to investable cash. Compare the properties themselves.

Does landlording effort count? Not in the numbers. It should count in your decision. Managing tenants over a decade is real. The calculator shows the money side.