Should You Keep or Sell Your House? (Best Choice for FIRE)

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Should you sell your house right now or turn it into a rental property? In this episode of the BiggerPockets Money podcast, hosts Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench dive deep into one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make with their guest Sean. He is sitting on serious equity but isn't sure what his next move should be. We break down his entire financial situation using a custom spreadsheet model that analyzes net worth, mortgage rates, rental income potential, cash flow projections, and long-term wealth building strategies. This isn't just theory—we're crunching real numbers to show you exactly how to think through this decision. We examine market conditions, tax implications, opportunity costs, and the hidden expenses most people forget when they become landlords. Whether you're dealing with a primary residence, investment property, or house hack situation, this episode gives you a replicable decision-making process you can use for your own real estate choices. By the end of this episode, you'll understand the financial trade-offs between liquidity and long-term appreciation, how to calculate true rental yields, and when holding onto property actually destroys wealth instead of building it. If you're facing a similar decision or planning your real estate exit strategy, this is the most comprehensive breakdown you'll find anywhere. 00:00 Should You Sell or Keep Your House? 01:17 Financial Overview: Net Worth, Income & Equity 02:33 Mortgage Rate Analysis and Current Housing Market Conditions 03:07 Rental Property Cash Flow Calculator 13:41 Hidden Rental Property Expenses and Long-Term Investment Returns 19:30 How Selling vs Renting Impacts Your Cash Flow and Net Worth 21:11 Net Worth Projections: Sell Now vs Hold 5, 10, 20 Years 23:27 Rental Property Cash Flow vs Home Sale Proceeds Analysis 24:29 Best Time to Sell Your House 26:26 Which Option Builds More Wealth? 31:14 Final Verdict: Should You Sell Your House Now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today, we are answering one of the biggest financial dilemmas many of us face.
0:04.8	Should you hold onto your house or should you sell it?
0:07.6	Our guest is wrestling with this exact dilemma right now, weighing factors like market conditions,
0:13.5	personal finances, and future five plans. We'll dig into the numbers and help break down a decision
0:19.7	that could shape his financial future for years
0:22.4	to come. Obviously, this advice is for Sean's specific situation, but this could be applicable to you
0:27.2	too. In this episode, Scott shares his screen and runs numbers in a spreadsheet. So if you're
0:33.6	curious to see the actual numbers, head on over to our YouTube channel, which is
0:38.5	YouTube.com slash bigger pockets money.
0:46.5	Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.
0:49.8	My name is Mindy Jensen.
0:50.9	And with me, as always, is my not selling his real estate co-host, Scott Trench.
0:55.5	Thanks, Mindy. I actually am selling one of my properties. I call it the Pita property. We can talk
1:01.4	about that another time. Pita stands for pain in the... Bottom. I do occasionally. I guess I will
1:09.6	sell my first property shortly here. But Sean, thank you so much for your willingness to share all of your numbers for this episode of Finance Friday. And, of course, setting up a great discussion about whether we should sell or keep a house, which I think is a lot of question a lot of people are grappling with. So thank you so much for your transparency and for coming on today. Thank you so much, Mindy and Scott. Appreciate the time. And it's an honor to be here.
1:31.9	Been a long time listener. So to be on the podcast is fantastic. Sean, I am going to run through your
1:38.5	numbers very quickly because I want to dive more into this house deal. So we have a total net worth of $240,000, which is awesome.
1:48.5	$20,000 in cash, $76,000 in a 401k, $5,000 in $529 plans, with the debts of, I've got a credit
1:58.9	card of $5,500, I'm sure most of that is paid off every month.
2:02.9	Assets, $320,000 in the primary mortgage, I'm sorry, in the primary house with a mortgage of $175,000.
2:10.7	Income of $138,000, current expenses, about $11,000 a month, which includes taxes, investments, and savings,
2:20.2	which you did to make sure you were actually spending or accounting for all of the money
	...

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