Sell or Rent at PCS
Should you sell your house or rent it out when you PCS from Sheppard AFB?
It depends on three things you can check before you go.The tax clock on a home sale, your Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home loan benefit, and the cost of owning a home from far away.
This page shows how each one works, so you can test your own numbers. You decide. Sheppard Air Force Base and Wichita Falls are the example here. The tax and VA rules apply to every Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move, at every base.
Start Here
The tax clock starts when you move out
If you sell, the IRS may let you keep up to $250,000 of profit tax free, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly when both of you lived there.
To get it, you must have owned the home and lived in it as your main home for at least 2 of the 5 years before the sale. You can use it only once in any 2 year period. Short of 2 years? If you sell mainly because your work location moved at least 50 miles farther from the home, the IRS may allow part of it.
Once you move out, the 5 years keep moving. Wait too long to sell, and your time living there can fall outside the window.
Service members can get more time. If you are on qualified official extended duty, you can choose to pause the 5 year window for one home at a time, for up to 10 years. The IRS counts you as on that duty when you are ordered to active duty for more than 90 days or with no end date, and your duty station is at least 50 miles from the home or you live in government quarters under orders.
Renting it out changes the math. A rental can earn a yearly tax deduction for wear on the home, called depreciation. When you sell, the part of your profit equal to that depreciation cannot be tax free. The IRS counts the depreciation you were allowed to take, even if you did not take it. Ask a tax professional before you rent.
Source: Publication 523, Selling Your Home, IRS, for 2025 returns. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
Your Situation
Start with what actually describes your situation
Not every question below will matter to you. Start with the ones that do.
Will you come back?
Orders to a new base, a last move before you retire, or a plan to return to this area. Each one points a different way.
How long have you lived in the home?
Count the time you lived there as your main home. It decides whether the tax window above can apply to you.
Will the rent cover the costs?
The mortgage, taxes, insurance and repairs stay yours, rented or empty. Compare them with the rent the home can bring, not a hoped for number.
Will you need your VA home loan benefit at the next base?
If the house has a VA loan, keeping it can leave less benefit for the next home. The comparison below shows why.
Who will look after the house?
You from far away, someone you trust nearby, or a manager you hire. A repair call still comes, wherever you are stationed.
Side by Side
Sell before you go, or keep it and rent it out
The same house, two choices. Here is what changes with each.
Sell
Before you goYou may owe none
If you owned it and lived there 2 of the 5 years before the sale: up to $250,000, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly when both lived there.
Can come back once the loan is paid in full
If the buyer takes over your VA loan instead, your benefit stays tied to it, unless that buyer is a veteran who swaps in their own.
End at closing
The buyer, after closing
Keep
And rent it outThe clock keeps running
Service members on qualified official extended duty can pause it for one home at a time, for up to 10 years. Depreciation from the rental years cannot be tax free.
Stays tied to this loan
What is left for the next home depends on the county loan limit where you buy next. Your lender may ask for a down payment if it is not enough.
Still yours
Mortgage, taxes, insurance and repairs, rented or empty.
You, or someone you pay
Selling ends the costs and the clock now. Keeping it keeps the house and any rent, along with the costs and the clock.
Not sure how much VA home loan benefit you have, or what it means? Our definition of VA loan entitlement explains it. VA's loan limits page shows how to work out what is left, and VA's eligibility page lists when it comes back.
Near Sheppard AFB
If you keep a home near Sheppard Air Force Base
Three local things to check before you sign a lease.
Your Texas homestead
A Texas homestead exemption takes part of your home's value off the tax bill, which can lower your taxes. Texas law says a home does not lose its homestead status while the owner is away for military service, if the owner does not set up a different main home. The Wichita Appraisal District decides how that applies to a home in Wichita County. Ask them before you rent the home out.
Who can rent off base
Sheppard's newcomer page says single permanent party members in grades E-4 and below must live in the base dorms unless the base waives it. Members with families, and single members E-5 and up, can consider living off base. Read the base's own page, because it can change.
HOMES.mil is the Defense Department's official rental housing site for service members. Property managers register, and the local base housing office approves their accounts. To see the monthly housing allowance near Sheppard by pay grade, use the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) calculator with ZIP code 76311.
If your renter gets orders
Federal law lets a service member who signs a lease and later gets PCS orders, or orders to deploy for 90 days or more, end it early. For monthly rent, the lease ends 30 days after the next rent due date after they give written notice and a copy of their orders. Plan for a lease that can end before its date. Read the law.
The Limits
What this page does not decide
This page is not tax or legal advice, and it does not tell you whether to sell or rent. The IRS decides what is taxed. The appraisal district decides your homestead. Your lender and VA decide your loan benefit. Bring your own numbers to a tax professional before you choose.
Tax questions go to a tax professional.A local agent can help with the house.
Tim Lockhart is a Mission Ready Operator who helps military homeowners near Sheppard AFB weigh selling against renting, and handles the sale when selling is the choice.
Last reviewed October 2026 · Maintained by My Military HQ
Common Questions
Questions military homeowners ask before a PCS
Should I sell my house or rent it out when I PCS?
It depends on three things you can check. Can you still sell inside the IRS window for a tax free profit? Will you need your VA home loan benefit for the next home? Will the rent cover the costs of owning from far away? Check each one with your own numbers before you choose. This is not tax advice.
How long do I have to sell my house after I move out and not pay tax on the profit?
The IRS rule is that you must have owned the home and lived in it as your main home for at least 2 of the 5 years before the sale. Once you move out, those 5 years keep moving. Service members on qualified official extended duty can choose to pause the 5 year window for one home at a time, for up to 10 years. Ask a tax professional how it applies to you.
If I rent out my house, can I still sell it tax free later?
Possibly. You still need 2 of the 5 years before the sale living there, and service members on qualified official extended duty can pause the 5 year window for one home at a time, for up to 10 years. But the part of your profit equal to the depreciation from the rental years cannot be tax free. The IRS counts the depreciation you were allowed to take, even if you did not take it. Ask a tax professional.
Does keeping my house affect my VA home loan benefit at the next base?
It can. Until the VA loan on the house is paid in full, the benefit you used stays tied to it. What is left for the next home depends on the county loan limit where you buy, and your lender may ask for a down payment if it is not enough. VA's loan limits page shows how to work it out.
Do I keep my Texas homestead exemption if I PCS?
Texas law says a home does not lose its homestead status while the owner is away for military service, if the owner does not set up a different main home. Your appraisal district decides how that applies to you, including whether renting the home out changes it. For a home in Wichita County, that is the Wichita Appraisal District.
Sources
Where every rule came from
Every rule on this page comes from the agency or law that sets it. We link each one so you can check it.
- The tax free amount, the 2 of 5 years, the pause for service members and depreciation. Publication 523, Selling Your Home, IRS, for 2025 returns. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- Your VA home loan benefit after you keep or sell. VA home loan limits and eligibility for a VA home loan, VA. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- When a buyer takes over a VA loan. VA Form 26-10291, Assumption Entitlement Acknowledgment, VA. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- The Texas homestead and military service. Texas Tax Code, Section 11.13, and property tax exemptions, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- Your local appraisal district. Wichita Appraisal District, Wichita Falls.
- Who lives on and off base. Permanent party newcomers, Sheppard Air Force Base. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- Rental listings for service members. HOMES.mil, Defense Department, and Housing made simple for service members: meet HOMES.mil, U.S. Army, 12 March 2025.
- Housing allowance and the base ZIP code. BAH rate lookup, Defense Travel Management Office, and the Sheppard AFB housing page, Military OneSource. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- Ending a lease after orders. 50 U.S.C. 3955, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, U.S. Code. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
What we left out on purpose. We give no rents, home prices, housing allowance rates or interest rates, because they change. Use the linked tools. We do not cover VA's rule about living in a home you buy with a VA loan, or what it means for renting the home out. Ask your lender. We do not cover state income tax, landlord law or property management.
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