Pick the calculator that fits your situation
Each one opens with example numbers. Replace them with your own and the results update as you type.
Thinking about buying
Should I Buy This Short-Term Rental?
Enter the price, loan, nightly rate, occupancy, and costs for a property you are looking at. You will see:
- Cash flow each year for up to 30 years
- The occupancy you need to cover all costs
- Tax savings from bonus and regular depreciation
- Your return before and after taxes, with a taxable sale or a 1031 exchange into a DST at the end
Already own one
Should I Keep or Sell My Short-Term Rental?
Enter what your rental is worth today, your loan, last year's income and costs, and the depreciation you have taken. You will see:
- How much cash you would walk away with if you sold today, after the loan and all taxes
- Whether keeping beats selling and investing, a 1031 exchange into a DST, or paying down debt
- How the answer changes if you sell later, exchange, or hold the property for life
What to have on hand
Rough numbers are fine for a first pass. You can come back and refine them.
For the buying calculator
- Purchase price, down payment, and closing costs
- Loan rate and term
- Expected nightly rate and occupancy
- Property tax rate, insurance, HOA dues, and utilities
- Land value, and a cost segregation estimate if you have one
- Your income tax rate
For the keep-or-sell calculator
- Today's home value and loan balance
- Booking revenue and costs for the last 12 months
- Original purchase price, years owned, and land value
- Depreciation taken so far, including any bonus depreciation
- Improvements made since you bought it
- Your income tax rate
How to read the results
Start with the after-tax numbers
Depreciation can make a rental that loses cash each year look much better once taxes are counted. It also creates a tax bill when you sell, because the IRS takes back part of that benefit through depreciation recapture.
Your exit plan changes the answer
A taxable sale, a 1031 exchange into a Delaware Statutory Trust (DST), and holding the property for life can lead to very different results. Both calculators let you compare these exits side by side.
Test the inputs that matter most
Occupancy, nightly rate, and home price growth move the results the most. Try a lower occupancy and slower price growth to see whether the numbers still work.
Want help with your rental decision?
I review short-term rentals as part of a full financial plan, including the tax planning around them: cost segregation, depreciation recapture, and 1031 exchanges into DSTs.
These calculators are for illustration only. Results are hypothetical, change whenever the inputs change, and are not a prediction or guarantee of future results. Real estate investments can lose money. DSTs are illiquid, are generally available only to accredited investors, and can lose value. A 1031 exchange defers taxes on a sale but does not remove them.