Sell or Rent Primary Residence

[Brent B.]

Hi,

I've had a hard time performing an apples-to-apples total tax cost evaluation between selling my primary residence versus renting it out.  Most of the web resources I've found are very vague and don't provide much depth.  I've also found one or two web calculators, but I don't see the assumptions they make nor their calculations and since they are provided from property management companies I'm a little skeptical they are skewed.  I'd be interested if others have performed this calculation in order to try to help them as one factor in making a decision.  I realize there are many, many points to consider, but I'd appreciate either very specific advice for the calculation of this based on specifics below or recommendations for a CPA to help, preferably with California tax knowledge.

Here is a sample scenario:

Hold/Sell Time horizon: 10 years

Capital Gains tax if sell: No. (owned primary residence for 2 or last 5 years)

Equity: 150k

Profit if Rental : 600/month (profit after considering recurring expenses like tax, maintenance, vacancy, etc.)

Tax implications from rental depreciation: Unknown

Thanks for the help.