Rental Property Calculator
Price and rent to start. Cash flow, cap rate, and
the most you can pay for the deal to work.
The Property
$82,400
Below 20% down, a conventional investment loan carries mortgage insurance. This model does not charge it, so the real payment runs higher.
$0/mo principal and interest, 30-year loan
Operating Assumptions
$6,592/year
$3,296/year
$1,872/year
$1,248/year
$3,120/year
$2,496/year
$1,048
$12,576/year
Cash flowing
Enter a purchase price to see results.
- 3.66%
- 2.96%
- 33.7 yr
- 0.63%
Cash to Start: $424,360 ($412,000 price + $12,360 closing at 3%)
Cap Rate
Net operating income divided by purchase price. Excludes CapEx and debt, so it stays comparable to cap rates quoted on listings.
Because it ignores financing, it describes the property rather than your deal. Two buyers paying the same price get the same cap rate and very different cash flow.
Cash on Cash
Annual cash flow divided by the cash you put in: down payment, closing costs, and repairs.
This is the one that answers "what is my money earning?", so it is the figure to compare against leaving the money somewhere else. Unlike cap rate, it moves with how you finance the purchase.
DSCR
Gross rent divided by PITIA: principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and HOA. This is the ratio a DSCR lender underwrites. It leaves out vacancy, maintenance, management, and CapEx because the lender does not deduct them, so a deal can clear the ratio and still lose money every month. Most DSCR lenders look for 1.20 or better, though minimums vary by lender and program.
Shown in financed mode only. With no loan there is no ratio to clear, so cash mode puts Payback in this tile instead.
Payback
Years of cash flow to recover what you put in. Reads "Never" when cash flow is zero or negative, because a deal that loses money never returns the capital.
It counts cash flow only. Appreciation and loan paydown also build your position and neither is in this number.
Rent to Price
Monthly rent divided by purchase price. The old 1% rule looked for 1% or better; almost nothing clears it today. Use it to compare properties.
Central Florida runs closer to 0.5%, so treat it as a way to rank two listings against each other rather than as a pass or fail.
Make This Deal Work
At $412,000 and $2,600/mo rent, this is a 3.66% cap rate today.
Pay up to
$297,143
to hit a 6% cap rate
0 means break even.
Rent needs to be
$1,144
to break even, holding the price at $412,000
- $31,200
- (6%)
- -$1,872
- (4%)
- -$1,248
- (10%)
- -$3,120
- (1.6%)
- -$6,592
- (0.8%)
- -$3,296
- $0
- $15,072
- (8%)
- -$2,496
- (7.5%)
- $0
- $12,576
Vacancy, maintenance, management, and CapEx are shares of gross rent. Taxes and insurance are shares of price. Closing costs are estimated at 3% of price; the loan term is 30 years.
An estimate built on the assumptions above, not a prediction or investment advice. Confirm the tax bill, insurance quote, and financing before you write an offer.
Thinking about a rental
in Central Florida?
Let's talk it through. Bring a property you're looking at, or just questions about the numbers.
Vacancy
The share of the year the unit sits empty. 6% is about three weeks.
Maintenance
Routine repairs and upkeep. Not the roof or the HVAC; those are CapEx.
Property Management
What a manager charges to run the property, usually 8% to 12% of rent. Leasing fees are typically separate.
CapEx Reserve
Reserve for the big replacements: roof, HVAC, water heater, flooring. Sits below NOI, so it does not affect the cap rate.
8% looks high until you price it out. Florida runs a shorter clock than the national tables: insurers can force the issue on a shingle roof once it passes 15 years, and heat plus year-round AC use puts most systems at 10 to 15. A $13,000 roof and a $6,200 AC alone come to about $1,200 a year before flooring, paint, appliances, or the water heater.
Insurance
A landlord policy, not homeowners. Florida rates swing on roof age and carrier, so get a real quote.
Property Taxes
No homestead exemption on an investment property, and the assessed value resets when you buy, so this runs above an owner-occupied rate.
Gross Rent
Monthly rent times 12, before anything is taken out. It assumes the unit is rented every month at that price; the vacancy line below is what corrects for the weeks it is not.
HOA
Association dues, if the property has them. A flat monthly amount rather than a percentage, so it does not scale when you change the price.
Worth checking before you write an offer: dues rise, and a special assessment for a roof or a structural repair is a separate bill this model does not carry.
NOI
Net operating income: gross rent minus everything above it. This is the number that drives the cap rate.
It deliberately excludes CapEx and debt service, which is why both sit below it. Cap rates quoted on listings and by brokers are figured the same way, so including them here would make this one incomparable.
Debt Service
A year of principal and interest on the loan. Taxes and insurance are their own lines above, so this is not the full PITIA payment a lender quotes.
Only the interest part is deductible, and the principal part is not an expense at all: it buys down what you owe. This model treats the whole payment as cash out the door, which is what it is month to month.
Cash Flow
Rent minus operating expenses, the CapEx reserve, and debt service. What is actually left over. The results panel reports it monthly and the expense walk totals it for the year; it is the same figure.
Before income taxes. Depreciation, mortgage interest deductions, and your own tax situation can move the after-tax result meaningfully in either direction, and none of that is modeled here.