All great additions, Prashant. Thanks for sharing. As per #3, I did try and increase rent at 2-3% yearly (as I recall, it’s been a while), but you’re right: We likely would have moved at some point, driving costs higher. I second your pet rent sentiments! As a landlord now, my wife and I do not charge pet rent.

1. Your capital gains on the sale of the home are untaxed. This may or may not hold true for long term capital gains from investments, depending on your personal income situation. For most people, the gains and any dividends are taxed at 15%. That brings down the actual returns in the rent-and-invest scenario to about $143K. Still good, but there is a drag from taxes.

2. Mortgage interest, taxes, etc. are deductible. Yes, the standard deduction went way up thanks to the Trump tax cuts, but if you’re single in a high tax rate, that deduction might save you a bunch of money. Not sure what the numbers work out to in your specific case, but these savings could be upwards of $4K per year for the first couple of years given the various known vectors.

3. Would you really be able to rent the same house/property for under $2K per month over 7 years? And while may not have had maintenance costs, you’d likely deal with a few moves, rental insurance and application fees/deposits. And pet rent, if applicable. God, I hate pet rent.

Thanks Quin! We paid off our loan in full before selling.

I was curious why you included the $300k loan amount as a “cost” in your ROI calculation. This didn’t come out of your pocket right? Not including that would significantly increase your ROI.

Thanks again, just trying to understand different perspectives!