The mortgage
Principal + interest payment on the investment loan. Property tax + insurance handled separately.
— / month P&I
Loan amount
—
Total interest (life of loan)
—
Cash to close
—
Rental Property
A real estate analysis without the YouTube-guru hype. Does this rental actually cashflow once you back out vacancy, repairs, property management, and the mortgage? What's the cap rate? The cash-on-cash return? Real numbers in plain English.
Operating expenses (the boring bills)
Everything that eats your rent before the mortgage even gets paid. Most new landlords forget half of these.
— / month total opex
Vacancy reserve
—
Maintenance
—
Property mgmt
—
CapEx reserve
—
Property tax + insurance
—
Net cashflow
What lands in your pocket after rent comes in and every bill goes out. Negative means you're paying to own a rental.
— / month
Effective rent (after vacancy)
—
Annual cashflow
—
Break-even rent
—
The investment metrics
Cap rate and cash-on-cash return. Cap rate ignores the mortgage; cash-on-cash is the percentage return on your actual cash invested.
— cash-on-cash return
Cap rate
—
NOI (annual)
—
Gross rent multiplier
—
Rent-to-price (1% rule)
—
The plan, at a glance
—
What's next?
What the numbers mean
- Cap rate = NOI ÷ purchase price. The return if you paid cash. Useful for comparing properties at apples-to-apples scale. Healthy: 6%+ in most US markets; 4–5% in expensive coastal cities.
- Cash-on-cash return = annual cashflow ÷ cash invested. Your actual % return on the money you put down. Decent: 8–12%. Below 4% and the stock market eats you alive.
- 1% rule — monthly rent ≥ 1% of purchase price. Old-school filter. Hard to find in 2026 unless you're in the rust belt.
- Gross rent multiplier (GRM) = price ÷ annual rent. Lower is better. Below 10 is good, above 15 is investor-skeptical.
- NOI = effective rent − operating expenses (NOT including mortgage P&I). What the property earns operationally.
What this plan doesn't model
- Appreciation — not assumed. If the property appreciates 3%/yr, that's gravy on top of the cashflow numbers here. This page is asking "does it cashflow today?" — the harder, more honest question.
- Tax benefits — depreciation deduction can shelter $5–10k/yr of taxable rental income. Significant if you're a high earner; less so if your income is low.
- 1031 exchange — defers capital gains when you sell into another investment property. Powerful for long-term plays.
- Bad tenants — eviction can cost $5k+ and 6 months. Build a much bigger vacancy/CapEx reserve in a problem market.
- Refinancing — if rates drop, refinancing can transform a marginal deal into a great one. Plan for it.