Here’s what we’ll make on our rental property
We signed the papers to sell our property. It’s almost official! The buyers sign next week and then they give us a check and we give them the keys. I’ve never sold a house before and definitely never sold a rental property.
Here are the numbers:
We bought the house for $250K in 2015
We’re selling for $485K in 2024
Our mortgage balance is about $182K
Doing some fancy math, that comes to $303K profit before taxes and fees. Not bad in nine years, I think!
But then the fees come in:
Closing costs and property taxes were around $6K
Realtor fees were around $20K
Capital gains taxes are estimated at $42K (we won’t know for sure until we file taxes next year, but we’ll pay some of it quarterly starting now)
So after the dust settles, we should have around $235K (or about £180K) — not counting all the time and money we’ve invested in the home over the past decade.
I’m really proud of us for making some smart and lucky decisions, and I’m happy to cash in now, no regrets. We got lucky with the housing market. We bought just before house prices started ballooning, and then we kept the house during the pandemic when prices went up even faster.
If we hung on to the house now, we’d be in for some big repairs in the next few years. It’ll need a new roof and new HVAC at some point. Plus, we’re ready to move on (literally).
It’s been a great investment, and now we’ll be able to meet the UK Spouse Visa financial requirements and have a healthy down payment to buy a house in the UK. Cross this one off the list, now just a million more to-do’s before we move!
