LHT Property Management · 2026-10-30
Rent vs. Sell: Running the Real Numbers on Your Tampa Bay Home
Key facts
- Compare TRUE net rent (after vacancy, management, insurance, tax, HOA/CDD, reserves) with TRUE net sale proceeds (after commissions, closing costs and taxes).
- The §121 primary-residence exclusion clock (2 of last 5 years) often decides the question on its own.
- Submarket matters: Brandon rents −5.0% YoY vs. double-digit gains in other Tampa Bay pockets.
It's the question we hear most from owners who are relocating, upsizing or inheriting a property: rent it or sell it? Here's the framework we run with owners — with real numbers, not vibes.
Step 1: True net rent
Start with market rent from live comps (metro median ≈ $1,991/month; Wesley Chapel ≈ $1,847). Then subtract what owners forget: vacancy (budget 5%), management (9% of rent, capped at $200/month), maintenance and turns, insurance at today's Florida quotes, property taxes, HOA/CDD, and a capital reserve for roof/AC. What survives is your real yield on the equity sitting in the house.
Step 2: True net sale proceeds
List price minus commissions, closing costs, prep/repairs, and — the big one — taxes: depreciation recapture and capital gains on a former rental are very different from the tax-free-ish gain on a primary residence sold inside the §121 window. If you lived in the home 2 of the last 5 years, that exclusion clock is ticking and often decides the question by itself.
Step 3: The deciding questions
How long will you hold? (Under 3 years, selling usually wins after turn costs.) What's your equity yield vs. what the proceeds would earn redeployed? Is the home in a high-appreciation corridor or a softening pocket — Brandon rents fell 5% last year while Ruskin rose double digits? Do you have a low-rate mortgage worth keeping? And honestly: do you want to be a landlord, or do you want a manager to make that question irrelevant?
Run your specific home with us — the rental analysis is free, and because Jason works both the management and the brokerage/mortgage sides, you'll get the rent case and the sale case from the same numbers.