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Should I sell or rent my house? Run the real numbers.
One payment now against an income stream later. Here is the sum written out, including the costs that get left out of it, and the case where keeping the house wins.
The sum, before anything else
Should I sell or rent my house is the only question on this site where the honest answer is often "keep it". A house that's paid off, or nearly paid off, sitting in a part of Utah where rents cover the costs with room to spare, is a decent thing to own. If that describes yours and you can stand the work, renting it out will beat any cash offer over time, including ours.
The trouble is that most people run the comparison with two numbers, the rent and the mortgage payment, and those two numbers make almost any house look like it pays. Here's the version with the rest of it in.
What comes off the rent
Start with a realistic monthly rent, not the highest one on a listing site, then take out:
- The mortgage payment, if there's still a loan
- Property taxes and insurance, and insurance costs more once it's a rental rather than your home
- Vacancy. A month empty between tenants is a month with no rental income and every cost still running
- Maintenance and repairs. A rough planning figure is around 1% of the value of the house each year, and older houses run higher
- A property manager, if you aren't doing it yourself, usually 8% to 10% of collected rent
- The big items on their own schedule: a roof, a furnace, a water heater, a sewer line
What's left is what the house actually pays you. On a paid-off house in good repair, that number can be genuinely good. On a house with a loan on it and a furnace with two winters left, it's often close to zero, and one bad tenant puts it well under.
What renting asks of you that a sale does not
Time, mostly, and the kind that arrives unannounced. Showings, applications, screening, the lease, the deposit and the accounting that goes with it, the call at 9pm about the water heater, and the one about the rent being late.
Utah writes down what a landlord owes a tenant, and it isn't optional: rules about how a security deposit is held and returned, a duty to keep the place fit to live in, and required notices before you can do most things, including ending a tenancy. Plain-English summaries by state are kept by Nolo, and it's worth reading yours before the first tenant moves in rather than after. If a tenant stops paying, the eviction is a court process with its own timetable, and the months it runs are months with no income and a mortgage still due.
None of that makes becoming a landlord a mistake. It makes it a job, and it should be priced like one.
Cash buyer vs renting it out, line by line.
One column is a single payment and a finished chapter. The other is a business with better long-run numbers and more ways to go wrong.
| Feature | Property Seller Solutions | Becoming a landlord |
|---|---|---|
| Cash now | Yes, in 7 days | No. It arrives monthly |
| Monthly work | None | Tenants, repairs, vacancies |
| Utah landlord duties | None after closing | Deposits, habitability, notices |
| Income | One payment, then done | Rent, minus costs and vacancy |
| Risk you carry | None after closing | Non-payment, damage, eviction |
| Tax | One sale to report | Rental income, plus depreciation recapture later |
| Long-run total | Fixed, and below full retail | Usually higher, if you can hold on |
The concession, and it's a big one: a paid-off house that rents for meaningfully more than it costs to hold will out-earn a cash sale over ten years, and you keep whatever the house gains in value. If you have the patience and somebody reliable to manage it, keep it. This page exists for the people for whom that isn't true.
What to expect either way
Selling and renting it out are two different jobs, so here is what each one asks of you.
Renting it out
Before a tenant moves in, the house has to be genuinely habitable: working heat, water, plumbing and locks, and repairs done rather than deferred. Budget for a turn: paint, carpet, a clean, and whatever the last person left behind. Then photographs, a listing, showings, applications and screening.
The lease is a real contract, and the deposit has rules attached about how it's held and what has to happen when the tenancy ends. Keep records from day one, in writing, including photographs of the condition on the day they move in.
After that it's monthly. Rent arrives, or it doesn't. Repairs happen at inconvenient times, and some of them can't wait. Once a year something expensive breaks. A property manager takes most of that off your hands for 8% to 10% of the rent, which is real money but often the difference between an investment and a second job, especially if you've moved out of state.
Over ten years, on the right house, this is usually the better financial outcome. Rents tend to rise, the loan gets smaller, and the house is likely to be worth more at the end than it is today. That's the case for keeping it, and it's a good one.
Selling to us
One phone call, two minutes: the address, the condition, when you need it done. One walkthrough. A written offer inside 24 hours, with the three figures behind it set out so you can check them.
Property Seller Solutions buys tenant-occupied houses, including ones where the tenant has stopped paying, and buys them as they stand. You don't have to evict anybody, clear anything out, or fix a single thing first. There's no commission, no fee, and we pay the closing costs on your side. The title company settles any mortgage, lien or unpaid property taxes out of the price and wires you the rest on the date you chose, 7 days or 60. The full sequence is on sell my house fast, and what the paperwork contains is on cash offer.
On tax, one sentence and no more: selling a rental is treated differently from selling a home you lived in, and years of depreciation can be recaptured when you sell. It can matter a great deal or not at all depending on your situation, and your CPA can confirm which. Ask them before you decide, not after.
Is this you?
The answer to sell or rent my house is usually sell when one of these is true:
- The house needs work before anyone could live in it, and you'd be paying for that out of pocket
- You inherited it and the family would rather have the money divided than a shared rental to run. There's more on that at selling inherited home and probate
- You've moved out of the area, and managing it from a distance means paying a property manager that erases the margin
- There's a tenant in place who has stopped paying, or a tenancy that has gone wrong
- The mortgage, taxes and insurance are more than the house would rent for
- You're carrying it while it sits empty, and that's the thing that's actually hurting. Options short of selling are set out on homeowner relief options in Utah
If you're weighing selling against listing it instead of renting it, that comparison is on cash buyer vs realtor. We've bought 1,300+ houses in Utah since 2016, hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and average 4.9 across 520 Google reviews. Someone answers at (385) 503-4333 from 8am to 7pm, seven days a week, and "keep it and rent it" is an answer we give often. If you want a figure to put on the other side of the sum, get your cash offer and we'll call you back within one business day.
Sellers who decided not to be landlords.
Real reviews, left on Google, by Utah homeowners who sold us their houses.
“One of the smoothest deals I've been part of. Communication was prompt, clear and collaborative the whole way through.”
“Fast and efficient. They made a fair, generous offer and we closed in five days.”
“I inherited my mother's house and had no idea where to start. They made it simple, respectful and stress-free.”
“You can tell they genuinely care about helping sellers. Responsive, and they handled everything with compassion.”
Questions people ask before they decide.
Should I sell or rent my house?
It is a sum rather than a slogan, so do the sum before you decide. Take a realistic monthly rent, subtract the mortgage, taxes, insurance, a month of vacancy spread across the year, a maintenance allowance, and management if you won't be doing it yourself. If what's left is comfortably positive and you can handle a bad month, keeping it is usually the better long-run outcome. If it's near zero, or it only works when nothing breaks, you're taking on a job and a risk for very little, and selling is the cleaner answer.
What does being a landlord in Utah actually involve?
More than collecting rent. There are rules about how a security deposit is held and returned, a duty to keep the property fit to live in and to make repairs, and required notices before most changes, including ending a tenancy. If a tenant stops paying, removing them is a court process with its own timetable and cost. None of it is unmanageable, and thousands of Utah landlords manage it, but it's a set of legal obligations rather than a passive arrangement. Read your state's rules before the first tenant, and keep everything in writing.
Will you buy a house that already has tenants in it?
Yes, including a tenant who has stopped paying, and you don't need to evict anybody first. We buy the house with the tenancy as it stands and take the situation on from closing. Tell us on the first call what the arrangement is, whether there's a written lease, how much deposit you're holding and whether rent is current, because all of that has to be handled properly at settlement. Sellers often expect this to be the thing that stops a sale. It usually isn't.
What's the tax difference between selling and renting?
It's real and it's specific to you, so this is the one question on the page we won't answer. Broadly, rental income is taxable each year, and when a rental is sold the depreciation claimed over the years can be recaptured, which affects what you keep. There are also rules about a home you lived in before it was rented. A CPA can tell you what applies in your case in about half an hour, and it's worth doing before you commit either way rather than in April.
Find out what your house is worth in cash. Free, and no strings.
One phone call, or one short form. You'll have a real number by this time tomorrow.
Tell us about the house
Where the house is, your name, and a number we can reach you on. We call back within one business day, and you're free to say no.