Keep the home or sell it?

A calmer way to look at the hardest decision in a divorce: can you afford to keep the house on your own income, or does selling protect you better?

Keep or sell

When a marriage ends, the house is often the largest asset and the most emotional one. This tool separates the two. It takes your real monthly numbers, slides your household from two incomes toward one, and shows you straight on whether the home is something you can carry or something that would carry you.

The keep or sell tool

Can the house stay yours?

Move the sliders for your situation. The dark panel updates in real time with what the house really requires of a one-income household, and a verdict you can act on.

Your situation

Combined household income $11,000/mo

Both incomes today, before the transition. Include net pay from both jobs plus any regular side income you can count on.

Transition to one income 50% removed

Move the slider right to remove more of the second income. The model assumes the higher earner brings in about 60% of the combined income, so the slider removes up to 100% of the other 40%.

Housing costs $2,600/mo

Mortgage, property taxes, insurance, HOA, and the upkeep you pay most months.

Non-housing expenses $2,300/mo

Debt payments, utilities, food, fuel, childcare, and everyday living costs.

One spouse buys out the other

Turn this on if the staying spouse would refinance to buy out the other's equity.

Buyout or refinance amount $60,000

What the staying spouse would pay or finance to buy out the other's equity.

About $379 per month if financed over 30 years at about 6.5%

Where you land

Live

The affordability gauge

Left means the numbers do not close on your own income. Right means the house fits with room to spare. Your position moves with every change above.

Not feasible Affordable

Outcome: A stretch

Your verdict

Live

Single income after transition: $8,800
50% of the second income removed from $11,000 combined per month
Monthly obligations: $4,900
housing and living costs
Remaining each month: $3,900
left over after all obligations
Obligation ratio: 56%

of single income committed

Strategist insight

Part of the second income is still in the picture right now, and that flatters this math. When it drops away fully, the budget tightens again, so the plan has to work at 100 percent transition, not at today's percentage. Use the time still on two incomes to pay down debt and build the cushion the single-income version of this budget will need.

Let's look at your options.

Planning estimate

This is a planning estimate for discussion, not a lender qualification, tax figure, or court determination. A fuller disclaimer, including the professional guidance to seek, sits below the calculator.

Your next step

Let's look at your options together.

The verdict above is a planning estimate, not a final answer. On a free strategy call, we walk through your real numbers, talk through what keeping or selling would actually take, and shape a plan that fits your situation. What matters most to you is where we start.

Schedule a Consultation

Free and private. No pressure, no obligation.

A note before you decide

This calculator is general educational guidance, not legal, accounting, financial, or tax advice. The figures are estimates for planning only: they simplify refinance terms, tax treatment, and settlement math, so treat them as a starting point, not a final answer. Divorce-related decisions carry real legal and tax consequences. A qualified attorney and a tax or financial professional should be consulted for your specific situation before you act on what this tool suggests.

Start With Your Home's Estimated Value

Enter your address to receive an estimated value, compare your selling options, and explore an immediate cash offer.

AI CERTIFIED REAL ESTATE AGENT™ • TRADITIONAL SALE • CASH OFFER • THE LOCKHART METHOD™ ✓ NO OBLIGATION • ✓ PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL • ✓ INSTANT HOME VALUE ESTIMATE

Your options

If the house cannot stay yours, these are the roads from here

The verdict above is about keeping the home on your own income. Whatever it says, the option that fits your situation still deserves a real look with real numbers, and these are the routes a Las Vegas homeowner can take.

Traditional listing

Maximum market exposure and typically the greatest potential net, on the longest timeline with the most prep and showing.

Explore the path

Cash offer

Speed and certainty, often with a lower net and service fees. Fewer inspections and less disruption.

Compare the numbers

Renovate to sell

Improve what the market pays for to lift the price and net, when the work clears the cost test.

See the math

Trade-in program

Coordinate selling with buying your next home on one timeline, so your equity arrives when you need it.

Explore the plan

Sell and stay

Unlock equity and rent back on a fixed term when selling on your terms matters more than moving now.

See how it works

List With a Twist

A multi-path sale through The Lockhart Method: MLS exposure, an instant cash-offer backup, and rent-to-own outreach running at once.

Explore the multi-path sale

Do nothing, or something else

Sell, rent, renovate, or stay are the four roads. Sometimes the right answer is none of the selling routes.

Work through the four

Next step

The right answer starts with a conversation.

Bring these numbers. I will help you see the options you cannot see from the inside: what keeping the home would really take, what selling frees up, and which path fits the life you are building. No pressure, just a clear strategy.

Talk through your numbers Schedule a Consultation

If you would like to talk through your situation, the first conversation is free and private. We will start from your numbers, not a script.

This calculator is a planning estimate, not a lender or legal determination.