<prompt> Human: Long-time rpersonalfinance reader, first time poster. I have a fairly complex choice to make this summer, but its one that is also not uncommon so Im curious to hear what people think my best option is. I was lucky enough to be able to buy a fixer-upper house in what was, at the time, a run-down neighborhood that has appreciated substantially since I purchased it in 2010. I lived in the house from 2008 to September of 2015. Since then, Ive been renting it out; currently, Im just barely breaking even on my mortgage, once you factor in the costs of repairs and maintenance. The house has appreciated from 230k when I bought it to somewhere around 450k today, based on Redfin and Zillow estimates and comparable sales in the neighborhood. My question is this: my exemption on capital gains on the sale of the house will expire in September of this year after that point, I wont have lived in the house for two of the past five years. This creates a strong incentive to sell in September so I can avoid the 15 in capital gains taxes. However, there are also compelling reasons to hang onto it:- the house is in a central part of a city Austin that looks like it will continue to grow and appreciate over the next 5 years at least- a lot of excellent restaurants, theaters, etc are opening up nearby. A luxury apartment complex was also recently built nearby. - if I sell this fall, I wont have time to fix the house up or stage it properly. It is in pretty rough shape. Since Im reasonably handy with things like repairing light fixtures, painting, and landscaping, I believe that I can add between 10k and 20k in value to the home just by spending a couple weeks fixing it up and painting it. In short, my choice is between selling now and making around 160k in gains factoring in closing costs, mortgage payoff, and depreciation taxes or hanging onto it and selling it for a higher price in 3-5 years. Assuming Zillows estimated appreciation rate for the area is roughly accurate 3.6 per year, which I think is conservative, I can assume a total return of around 215k after taxes if I hang onto the house for 5 more years. Happy to elaborate on my math here if anyone is curious; its not exact but I think roughly in the right ballpark.If I sold the house this year, Id reinvest the proceeds in a Vanguard index fund or the like. So in many ways this comes down to a macro bet between real estate vs equity appreciation over the next five years. Curious what people think.  <response>: Hard to pass up the capital gains savings. I would sell 