House Hacking and when to move on

[RJ Davies]

I was recently talking with my mentor about his goals for investing when he mentioned that if a multifamily property he owned appreciated by a certain percentage, he would sell, and take the money to use for another project. This comment took me by surprise, as most of the discussion I've seen around buy and holds has been to hold them for the long term (5+ years) with no mention of a threshold for selling to use the gains on the next property. I started thinking about what I would consider to be a good number to begin thinking seriously about this, and have generally been stumped. The number he put forward (30%) makes sense when you aren't living in the property, but since I am house hacking mine currently, that would throw a wrench in the mix. Also, with the way the market is here right now, part of me thinks that the realized gain I would receive when selling would be negated, so to speak, but the high price of the market currently. I'm in no hurry to act either way right now, but thought that this would be a good thing for me to figure out as part of a business plan. What are your thoughts?