This is an estimate for planning. It is not a quote, an appraisal, an offer, a loan offer, or tax or legal advice, and Rudy is a real estate agent, not a lender or tax professional.
The five paths, in plain English
Open-market listing
The listing goes live in the MLS, and the public home-search websites pick it up. Photos, showings and open houses follow, and all buyers and their agents see it together. The sale pays off your loan at closing.
When owners often choose it: The aim is to reach the most buyers and give the price a complete test, with time on the calendar for prep, showings and escrow.
Tradeoffs: There are more showings, and the price history is out in public. Prep is a cost you pay before selling. Plan on 30 to 45 days of escrow, as a rule, once you accept an offer, and the buyer’s inspection may lead to requests for repairs or credits.
Pre-market or Coming Soon
This path lets a smaller group of buyers see the home before anyone else, either ahead of a public launch or with no public launch at all. That can mean a Coming Soon period, an office-only listing kept within one brokerage, or a listing with delayed marketing.
When owners often choose it: Keeping things private, setting the timing and showings, or getting flexible terms (a later move-out, for example) counts for more than the widest reach.
Tradeoffs: Fewer buyers may see it, which can mean fewer offers and a weaker read on price. SDMLS gives Coming Soon up to 30 days and CRMLS up to 21, in-person showings aren’t allowed, and you sign a seller form up front. Under Zillow’s rules, a home marketed to the public that still isn’t in the MLS one business day later is left off Zillow and Trulia until its listing agreement ends.
As-is or cash offer
The buyer pays cash for the home in as-is condition, frequently after a single walk-through. The math uses the actual offer you enter rather than a guessed discount, and this sale pays off your loan as well.
When owners often choose it: Your top goal is a fast close, with fewer contingencies and no repair work or showings.
Tradeoffs: Cash buyers tend to pay below open-market value, offering a quick, certain close in return, and each buyer’s offer is different. Look at who pays which costs in the offer terms. Closing within 1 to 3 weeks happens often, though each buyer’s timing is different.
Rent it out, sell later
You move out and lease the home to a tenant. The loan stays open, its payment keeps going, and you sell after the number of years you choose.
When owners often choose it: The rent would handle a big share of the monthly bill, you’d rather sell down the line, or you might move back.
Tradeoffs: Budget for a property manager or your own time, plus repairs and vacant months. Local rent and notice rules apply. If you rent it out for several years, your federal home-sale exclusion could be affected, since it generally calls for owning and living in the home for 2 years or longer within the 5 years that lead up to the sale. Ask your CPA.
Keep the home
You stay in the home and keep the loan you have now. No sale means no selling costs today.
When owners often choose it: Your home still fits your life, your current VA loan terms are worth holding on to, or a move isn’t on the calendar yet.
Tradeoffs: The equity you’ve built stays in the home. You keep making the loan payment and paying tax, insurance and upkeep. The market will set the home’s future value, so the growth rate behind this column is your guess, not a forecast.
Pre-market and coming-soon sales: the rules
Quiet and early marketing is governed by national REALTOR® policy, by your MLS and by your brokerage, while home-search sites such as Zillow have standards of their own.
The national piece first. NAR, the National Association of REALTORS®, keeps its Clear Cooperation Policy in effect. Under that policy, public marketing of any kind (a flyer, an email blast, a sign in the yard, a public website, or a network shared among several brokerages) means the listing broker must file the home with the MLS within one business day. Sellers also have NAR’s Multiple Listing Options for Sellers, on the books since March 25, 2025, which lets them pass on a full public listing and pick one of two other routes. In a delayed-marketing listing, other agents can find the home in the MLS, but it’s withheld from public home-search sites until a waiting period, set by the MLS, runs out. With office-only, the MLS holds the listing on file, yet agents at outside brokerages can’t see it and nothing is marketed publicly. A signed seller disclosure comes first in both cases.
Listings in San Diego County run through one of two MLSs. One is the San Diego MLS, called SDMLS; the other is the California Regional MLS, called CRMLS. Their rules differ.
SDMLS: A Coming Soon listing may last up to 30 days. It’s visible to agents in the MLS. Advertising is allowed and so is accepting an offer; touring in person and holding open houses are not. Public portals don’t get SDMLS Coming Soon listings, and neither do IDX feeds, the data behind listings on other brokers’ websites. Once Active, a listing can’t move back to Coming Soon. To handle NAR’s delayed-marketing option, SDMLS uses an Active status that never goes up on the internet. There’s no time limit on it, and buyers can tour the home in person.
CRMLS: A Coming Soon listing may last up to 21 days, then it becomes Active. The home can’t be shown in any form, and each ad needs the words Coming Soon. These listings normally flow to IDX feeds and portals like Realtor.com and Homes.com, although a seller form new in 2026 can keep them out of IDX. Leaving Coming Soon is one-way. CRMLS has no delayed-marketing path, and under CRMLS rules a home left out of the MLS can’t get public marketing outside the brokerage.
California: The seller’s MLS decisions are captured on a C.A.R. form known as the MLSA (Multiple Listing Service Addendum). C.A.R. updated it in September 2025, and a particular MLS may also request its own form. By signing the NAR disclosure, the seller confirms they understand what they’re giving up, for example fast, wide reach to buyers through the MLS.
Zillow: Under its Listing Access Standards, Zillow and Trulia won’t display a home for as long as its listing agreement is in force if the home was publicly marketed and didn’t reach the MLS within one business day. If the home won’t be marketed publicly, Zillow has the seller sign a waiver that explains the downsides.
Since 2025 the rules have been updated several times, and a brokerage may also set a policy. Rudy will confirm which MLS your home is in and which rules fit your dates, while your lender confirms the loan side.
Rules as of 2026-10-30. Sources: NAR: Multiple Listing Options for Sellers; NAR: MLS Clear Cooperation Policy (Policy Statement 8.0); NAR: Multiple Listing Options for Sellers FAQ (May 27, 2025); NAR: Office Exclusive Listings, Pre-Marketing Guidance; SDMLS: DMEL & DMLE: What’s the Difference? (Coming Soon Status, revised July 2026); SDMLS: The SELM Is a Discontinued Form (use the C.A.R. MLSA); CRMLS: Coming Soon Status; CRMLS: Limited Exposure for Coming Soon FAQs; CRMLS: C.A.R. Form MLSA (Multiple Listing Service Addendum) FAQs; Zillow: Listing Access Standards (PDF). Your agent will confirm what applies to your home.
About these numbers
- Treat these results as estimates for planning, drawn from your inputs. Nothing here is a forecast, an offer or an appraisal.
- Commission is open to negotiation and lives in your listing agreement. The selling costs use the percentages you entered.
- Holding costs combine the interest on your loan with tax, insurance and HOA dues, month after month, until the sale closes.
- Money you receive at closing and money you receive years later aren’t equal. The rent and keep results leave out income tax, depreciation and what the cash might have earned.
- Tax on a gain from selling isn’t counted. To see how the home-sale exclusion applies to you, talk with a CPA, especially if you’ll lease the home to a tenant before selling.
Questions owners ask
How does my VA loan show up in the results?
The sale columns subtract what you owe, so each one shows cash after the payoff. Your lender’s payoff statement has the exact figure. The rent column counts your loan payment each year the loan lasts, and the keep column shows the home’s future value minus what you’d still owe then.
What counts as a holding cost?
Think of it as the price of owning the home while you wait to close. Each month adds your loan interest along with property tax, insurance and HOA dues. A longer timeline means more months, so try a few lengths.
Does the keep column assume my home will gain value?
It uses the yearly growth rate in the box, and that rate is your own guess, not a forecast. Try several, including 0%, and watch how the equity figure moves. That equity is the home’s value at the end of the period minus the loan balance left.
What does an office-only listing mean for my sale?
It’s a listing kept inside one brokerage. NAR’s rules still put it on file with the MLS, yet other firms’ agents can’t view it and it gets no public advertising. Once it’s marketed publicly, the one-business-day rule kicks in and it must be entered in the MLS. You sign a disclosure before it starts.
Do the rent and keep results include income tax?
No. Property tax is part of the rent column’s monthly costs, but income tax, depreciation and any earnings your cash might have made aren’t counted, and neither is tax on a gain from a sale. The federal exclusion lets you leave out up to $250,000 of home-sale gain, or $500,000 for married couples on a joint return. As a rule, you need 2 or more years of ownership and 2 or more years living there, all within the 5-year period before the sale. A CPA can apply it to your dates, especially if you rent first.
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