Should I Sell My Google Stock to Buy a House - or Borrow Against It?
I hear some version of this question from Googlers pretty regularly:
“Why would I sell my Google stock for a house and pay the taxes if I can just borrow against it?”
I get the appeal.
You keep the Google stock. You don’t realize the gain just to come up with the down payment. And if Google keeps going up, you still own it.
Okay.
But I’d want to see the other version too.
What happens if you buy the house and Google drops significantly?
That’s where I think this decision gets more interesting.
QUICK SUMMARY
There are basically two ways to come up with the down payment:
• Sell Google stock. Potentially pay capital gains taxes, reduce your Google position and move on.
• Borrow against the stock. Keep the shares and avoid selling them for the down payment, but take on another loan with interest and collateral requirements.
Neither is automatically better.
Before I’d be comfortable with the borrowing route, I’d want to understand what happens when Google goes up and what happens when it goes down.
Let’s run through it.
A $2 MILLION HOME EXAMPLE
Say you’re considering a home with a maximum purchase price of $2 million.
You have:
• $1 million in Google stock
• $1 million in diversified ETFs
• $2 million total invested
You don’t really want to sell the diversified investments and realize gains there.
You’ve also been thinking about reducing Google. But selling $500,000 of Google could create a capital gains tax bill depending on your cost basis.
For simplicity, let’s say you want to put $500,000 down and take out a $1.5 million mortgage.
Now you have a choice.
SHOULD I SELL GOOGLE STOCK FOR A HOUSE DOWN PAYMENT?
This is the simpler one.
Sell enough Google to fund the down payment.
Yes, you may owe capital gains taxes. We’d need the actual cost basis to know how much.
But you’re also doing something you may have wanted to do anyway: reducing a $1 million position in one company.
Then it’s done.
You have the mortgage on the house, but you don’t also have a $500,000 loan sitting against your investments.
That’s worth something.
CAN I BORROW AGAINST GOOGLE STOCK TO BUY A HOUSE?
Instead of selling the shares, you may be able to pledge eligible investments as collateral and borrow the $500,000.
Very simply:
Google stock → collateral
$500,000 loan → down payment
$1.5 million mortgage → rest of the house
You still own the Google shares.
And because you didn’t sell those shares to raise the down payment, you didn’t realize the gain from that particular sale.
But I wouldn’t call that eliminating the tax.
You avoided or deferred the sale.
In exchange, you now owe somebody $500,000.
And they’re charging interest.
WHAT DOES THE LOAN ACTUALLY COST?
Borrowing isn’t free.
Let’s assume, strictly for illustration, that the $500,000 loan costs 7% annually.
That’s approximately $35,000 of interest for one year, before fees or other costs.
Now I have something useful to compare.
I know approximately what keeping the additional $500,000 invested costs me for that year.
What I don’t know is what Google will do.
It could rise.
It could fall.
I don’t know.
That uncertainty is the whole point.
You’re paying a known borrowing cost to continue owning an investment with an unknown future value.
WHAT IF GOOGLE STOCK FALLS?
This is the side I’d spend more time on.
Say Google falls substantially after you buy the house.
Your stock is worth less.
The loan?
You still owe it.
That’s the part I wouldn’t gloss over.
The stock can fall quickly. The debt doesn’t fall with it.
Depending on the lender, the securities pledged and the terms of the loan, a large enough decline could mean you need to add collateral or pay down some of the loan.
And if you can’t?
The lender may have the right to sell pledged securities.
Which creates a pretty lousy outcome.
You borrowed because you didn’t want to sell Google.
Now Google is down and you may have to sell securities anyway.
That’s the scenario I’d want to understand before buying the house.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I SELL GOOGLE STOCK UPFRONT INSTEAD?
Go back to the first buyer.
They sell Google for the down payment, realize whatever taxable gain applies, and buy the house.
Then Google falls.
Their remaining Google shares fall too. That still hurts.
But nobody is calling about the $500,000 securities-backed loan.
There’s no interest piling up on it.
There’s no question about whether they need to post more collateral.
And they reduced a concentrated position they already wanted to reduce.
That’s why, when someone asks me whether borrowing is better because it avoids the tax, my reaction is usually:
Don’t start with the tax.
Start with what you’re giving up and what you’re taking on.
WHAT SHOULD I KNOW BEFORE BORROWING AGAINST GOOGLE STOCK?
Before borrowing against Google stock for a house, I’d want answers to some pretty basic questions:
• What’s the actual tax cost if we sell?
• What’s the actual interest rate on the loan, and can it change?
• How far could Google fall before the lender wants more collateral?
• What other investments can the lender look to?
• If you had to come up with another $100,000 quickly, where would it come from?
• What happens if Google falls at the same time your other investments fall?
That fifth question is a good one.
Because this shouldn’t work only when everything else is going well.
THE STRESS TEST I’D RUN
Before making the decision, I’d ask the lender to show me what happens if the collateral declines substantially.
Not because I know Google is going to fall.
I don’t.
I want to understand the rules before we need them.
Show me the loan balance.
Show me the interest cost.
Show me when additional collateral could be required.
Then one more thing:
If the lender wants more money, where are we getting it?
Cash?
Other investments?
Selling Google?
If the answer is, “I’m not sure,” that’s useful information.
I don’t think borrowing against Google stock is inherently a bad idea.
There are situations where it can make sense.
But I also wouldn’t borrow $500,000 simply because writing a check to the IRS feels worse than taking out another loan.
Selling Google may mean paying taxes today. It can also mean reducing concentration and being done with it.
Borrowing lets you keep the shares and whatever happens to them next. But now you have interest expense, another debt and a lender with a say in what happens if the collateral falls far enough.
For me, that’s the decision.
Show me what happens if things go well.
Then show me what happens if they don’t.
I’d want to be comfortable with both before using the stock to help buy the house.
CONTINUE LEARNING
If you’re thinking through what to do with Google stock, these may be helpful next:
• Managing Concentrated Stock Positions
https://www.hilpanmoxiewm.com/blog/managing-concentrated-stock-positions-technology-employees
• Should Technology Employees Sell RSUs Immediately?
https://www.hilpanmoxiewm.com/blog/should-technology-employees-sell-rsus-immediately
• How Are RSUs Taxed? A Guide for Technology Employees
https://www.hilpanmoxiewm.com/blog/how-are-rsus-taxed-guide-technology-employees
SCHEDULE AN INTRODUCTORY CONVERSATION
If you are navigating Google stock, a home purchase, or another large financial decision and would like to discuss how it fits into your financial plan, you may consider scheduling an introductory conversation:
https://calendly.com/don-hilario/30min?month=2026-03