Should I sell my farmland or keep renting it out?
Deciding between holding farmland for steady rental income or selling it for investment cash depends on balancing immediate family financial needs with long-term returns. Relying on rental income or sale proceeds to cover current household expenses and raising a family makes it difficult to weigh future investment growth against present-day survival.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 15.3× more often in r/personalfinance than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Renting out the land to generate passive annual incomeDid this help you?
- 2Farming the land directlyDid this help you?
- 3Evaluating potential returns from investing sale proceeds in the stock market or high-yield savings accountsDid this help you?
- 4Selling the home immediately and investing the proceeds into the stock market or high-yield savings accountsDid this help you?
- 5Hiring a property management agency to handle the responsibilities of leasing out the homeDid this help you?
- 6Trying to rent out the property while managing a monthly deficit and hiring a property managerDid this help you?
- 7Selling the property and reinvesting the proceeds into the marketDid this help you?
- 8Consulting a property manager to estimate rental prices and tenant demandDid this help you?
- 9Talking to a realtor about listing prices and staging the property for saleDid this help you?
- 10Relying on liquid cash savings to float potential lossesDid this help you?
- 11Selling the home to buy an RV and truck for traveling while investing the remaining profitDid this help you?
- 12Renting out the home to generate monthly cash flow while living in a smaller RV on the roadDid this help you?
- 13Hiring a property management companyDid this help you?
- 14Managing the property independently from a distanceDid this help you?
- 15Selling the property instead of renting it outDid this help you?
- 16holding onto the property and leasing it out using a property managerDid this help you?
- 17selling the property at a lower price to offload it quicklyDid this help you?
- 18Holding the properties and continuing to manage the maintenance and taxes for the monthly cash flowDid this help you?
- 19Selling the properties and investing the proceeds into a mix of index funds and CDsDid this help you?
- 20Waiting to sell until treasury interest rates hit a specific targetDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Would it be better to keep renting it out or to sell it and invest the profits?”source ↗
“Being a long distance landlord is very difficult.”source ↗
“Imagine having someone stop paying rent and trash the place. It could easily cost you high 10s of thousands in lost rent, repairs, and legal fees.”source ↗
“what should we do with the extra house?”source ↗
“Should we hold onto it and try to rent it out until there's a better market, or just try and offload it for less of a headache.”source ↗
“I'm not looking forward to being a landlord”source ↗
“Should I keep my home or sell? Im leaning to selling as the house will not be getting any younger.”source ↗
“Is it more worth it to keep this as a long term asset and rent it out for an $800-$1000 loss and rent a place in the new city? Or should I just call it a day and sell.”source ↗
“If we actually invest the rental income. Realistically we need it for household updates, kids vehicles, etc.”source ↗
“It's hard to look that future forward when we are raising our family now.”source ↗
“My husband would not immediately retire. I'm a SAHM other than a few hours a week cleaning job. We are in our forties and raising 5 kids on 100k a year if that helps.”source ↗
“Would it be better to sell and put the $ in a high yield savings acct and use the interest, or should I keep the house and make it a rental?”source ↗
“Are we crazy for trying to rent it out? Should we cut our losses and sell, putting the money in the market?”source ↗
“Driving ourselves nuts with the mental whiplash!”source ↗
“Selling your home, an asset that's likely to appreciate over time, to buy two assets that depreciate rapidly seems like a bad idea.”source ↗
“If you are on the road enough to justify this thought then selling it would more than likely be the best option.”source ↗
“I'm retiring in a year or so, and I'm trying to decide whether to keep the rentals or sell them and invest the proceeds.”source ↗