Question 1

Should I sell my rental property or keep renting it out?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what the sale proceeds would earn elsewhere. Selling converts the house into cash you can invest; holding keeps the appreciation, the rent and the principal paydown. The comparison that settles it measures both the same way — cash in hand at a given year — and finds the year, if any, when holding overtakes selling. On the worked example at 8303 Briarwood Ln, Austin, TX, a $682,386 house renting at $2,618/mo nets $627,795 if sold today, and at 5 years selling and investing the proceeds is worth $90,437 more than holding it — holding never overtakes selling inside 5 years.

Question 2

What is the crossover year?

Accepted Answer

The first year in which holding and renting is worth more than selling today and investing the proceeds. Before it, selling is ahead; after it, holding is. It is the single most useful number in the decision because it converts an argument about the future into a date. When it does not exist inside the horizon, that is the answer: on this worked example holding never overtakes selling inside 5 years, and the tool reports that rather than picking an encouraging year.

Question 3

How do you compare a lump sum against monthly rent?

Accepted Answer

By measuring both as cash in hand at the same year. The sell side is today's net proceeds compounded at the rate the money would earn if invested — 7% by default. The hold side is what the property would net if sold in that year, less selling costs and any remaining loan, plus the rent collected along the way, compounded at that same rate. Using the same rate on both sides matters: letting sale proceeds compound while rent merely accumulates would tilt every comparison toward selling.

Question 4

What assumptions does it use, and can I change them?

Accepted Answer

It starts at 3% annual appreciation, 3% rent growth, a 7% return on invested proceeds, 8% selling costs, and 5% vacancy with 8% management, 5% maintenance and 5% capital reserves on the rental side. Every one is editable, along with your loan balance and cash reserve, and the whole projection recomputes — the figures on screen are always the ones your own assumptions produce.

Question 5

Does this account for taxes?

Accepted Answer

No, and it says so on every screen. Every figure is pre-tax. Capital gains, depreciation recapture, the Section 121 primary-residence exclusion, suspended passive losses and state tax all depend on your basis, your bracket, your state and your residency history — none of which this tool can see. It lists the specific items worth raising with a CPA instead of estimating a number it cannot know. Tax never changes the crossover year or any other figure here.

Question 6

Is it free, and do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

It is free and it needs no account. Type an address and the full year-by-year comparison runs, or enter the value and rent yourself if you would rather not use an address. What a paid ReInvestIQ plan adds is the evidence around the arithmetic — the comparable sales and rentals behind the estimates, a written recommendation, and a saved, shareable report — not a better answer to this question.