Rental Property ROI Calculator
Run a property through real numbers before you fall in love with it. Cash flow, cap rate, cash-on-cash, and DSCR, calculated live.
Analyze a Rental Property
The fields start with realistic Northern Colorado defaults, so you get a meaningful result immediately. Change anything and every figure updates live. No email, no gate, and your inputs are saved in the page address so you can share the whole analysis.
Rental property ROI calculator
Estimated monthly cash flow
-$758
- Annual cash flow
Monthly cash flow times twelve. This is what the property is expected to put in your pocket over a full year after every operating expense and the mortgage payment.
- -$9,094
- Cap rate
Annual net operating income divided by purchase price, ignoring your loan. It measures the asset itself, which makes it the fairest way to compare two properties. Front Range rentals commonly land between 4% and 6%.
- 4.18%
- Cash-on-cash return
Annual cash flow divided by the cash you actually invested. This is your return on your own money, and it moves with your financing. Many local investors target 4% or better while accepting less in exchange for stronger appreciation potential.
- -6.37%
- Total cash invested
Down payment plus closing costs plus rehab. This is the real cost of entry and the denominator behind your cash-on-cash return, which is why leaving rehab out flatters a deal so badly.
- $142,750
- Gross rent multiplier
Purchase price divided by annual gross rent. A rough screening figure where lower is cheaper relative to income. It ignores expenses entirely, so use it to sort a list, never to make a decision.
- 15.09
- DSCR
Net operating income divided by annual debt service. Above 1.00 means operations cover the loan. Investor lenders commonly want 1.20 or better, so this figure tells you whether a future refinance is realistic.
- 0.71
- One percent rule
A screening filter asking whether monthly rent is at least 1% of purchase price. Very few Front Range properties clear it at current prices, so treat a fail as normal here and let cash flow and DSCR decide.
- Fail0.55%of price per month
Monthly breakdown
- Gross rent and other income
- $2,900
- Less vacancy
- - $145
- Effective income
- $2,755
- Property taxes
- - $258
- Insurance
- - $146
- HOA dues
- - $0
- Property management
- - $232
- Maintenance
- - $145
- CapEx reserve
- - $145
- Owner-paid utilities
- - $0
- Net operating income
- $1,829
- Debt service
- - $2,587
- Net monthly cash flow
- -$758
This calculator produces illustrative estimates based on the assumptions you enter. It is not investment advice, a lending commitment, or a guarantee of returns. Actual results depend on financing terms, market conditions, tenant performance, and expenses that are difficult to predict. Consult your lender, CPA, and attorney before investing.
Purchase and financing
Linked to the amount below.
Linked to the percent above.
Investor loans are commonly 30 years.
Make-ready work before the first tenant.
Income
Pet rent, parking, storage, laundry.
5% to 8% is realistic locally.
Operating expenses
Landlord policies cost more than owner-occupied.
Typically 8% to 10% locally.
Roof, furnace, water heater, windows.
Have a specific property in mind?
Send the listing and Brandon will pressure-test these numbers against real rent comps.
- Seven metrics plus a full line-item breakdown
- Conservative defaults, not optimistic ones
- Shareable link, no email required
- Built on the same assumptions used in a real deal review
Information on this page is general and educational. Investment outcomes vary and are not guaranteed. Lending decisions are made by licensed lenders. Local regulations change, so verify rules with the appropriate city or county.
How to Read Each Metric
Seven figures, each answering a different question. Investors get into trouble by tracking one and ignoring the rest.
Monthly and annual cash flow
What is left after every operating expense and the mortgage payment. This is the figure that determines whether owning the property is comfortable or stressful. Watch what happens to it when you raise vacancy from 3% to 8%. If it goes negative, you have found the real risk in the deal.
Cap rate
Annual net operating income divided by purchase price. It deliberately ignores your loan, which is what makes it useful: two investors with different financing can compare the same building and agree on what it is worth. Front Range rentals commonly land between 4% and 6%.
Cash-on-cash return
Annual cash flow divided by the cash you actually put in. This is your return on your own money, and unlike cap rate it moves with your financing. Borrow more and it can rise while the property itself gets no better, which is leverage working in your favor and increasing your risk at the same time.
Total cash invested
Down payment plus closing costs plus rehab. It is the real cost of entry and the denominator behind cash-on-cash return. Leaving rehab out of this number is the fastest way to make a mediocre deal look strong.
Gross rent multiplier
Purchase price divided by annual gross rent, where lower is cheaper relative to income. It ignores expenses completely, so a property with high taxes and an HOA can look identical to one with neither. Use it to sort a long list quickly, never to decide.
DSCR and the one percent rule
DSCR is net operating income divided by annual debt service, and it asks whether the property can carry its own loan. The one percent rule asks whether monthly rent reaches 1% of price. Very few Front Range properties clear it now, so treat a fail as normal here and let cash flow and DSCR make the call.
Why Cap Rate and Cash-on-Cash Answer Different Questions
These two get used interchangeably in conversation, and they should not be.
Cap rate is a question about the asset. Strip away financing entirely and ask what income this building produces relative to what it costs. That is why appraisers and commercial investors lean on it: it lets you compare a paid-off fourplex against a heavily leveraged single-family and still learn something true about both.
Cash-on-cash is a question about your deal. It measures what your specific down payment, your rate, and your closing costs return to you in a year. Two investors can buy identical houses on the same street for the same price, and their cash-on-cash returns will differ substantially because one put 25% down and the other put 35% down.
The practical use is to check them together. A strong cap rate with a weak cash-on-cash return usually means your financing is expensive or you overpaid at closing. A weak cap rate with a strong cash-on-cash return means leverage is carrying the deal, which works until vacancy or a rate change removes the cushion.
What Realistic Actually Looks Like
Optimistic assumptions are the most common reason a rental underperforms. These ranges reflect how Northern Colorado properties actually operate.
- Vacancy at 5% to 8%, which is two to four weeks of turnover per year on a stabilized long-term rental
- Maintenance at 5% of rent for recurring small repairs, more on a home built before 1980
- CapEx reserve at 5% of rent, held separately for roof, furnace, water heater, and windows
- Management at 8% to 10% of collected rent, plus a leasing fee on turnover in most local contracts
- Landlord insurance priced above an owner-occupied policy, and rising along the Front Range hail corridor
- Property taxes checked against the county assessor rather than the listing sheet, since assessed values move
A useful discipline: model the deal twice. Once at these figures, and once with vacancy at 10%, maintenance at 8%, and management included even if you plan to self-manage. If the property survives the second version, you have a durable investment rather than a fragile one.
Why DSCR Matters If You Plan to Refinance
DSCR is the ratio most investors ignore until the moment it blocks them.
Net operating income divided by annual debt service. At 1.00 the property exactly covers its loan from operations. Below 1.00 you are subsidizing it from your personal income, which lenders can see as clearly as you can. Investor lenders offering DSCR-style products commonly look for 1.20 or better, and that threshold decides the terms you are offered.
This matters most for a BRRRR strategy or any plan that depends on pulling capital back out later. You can buy well, renovate well, and still be unable to refinance on the terms you assumed, because rents did not rise enough to support the ratio at the new loan amount. Run DSCR at your projected refinance rate before you buy, not after the rehab is finished.
The Most Common Ways Investors Fool Themselves
Every one of these has been used to justify a purchase that later disappointed. Most of them are subtractions, not lies.
- Modeling zero vacancy, which quietly adds a full month of rent to every year
- Folding CapEx into maintenance, so one roof replacement erases four years of returns
- Leaving rehab out of total cash invested, which inflates cash-on-cash return
- Using the seller's rent number instead of pulling comparable rents for the same layout and condition
- Assuming self-management is free, when it is unpaid labor you may not want in three years
- Counting appreciation as income, then calling a negative cash flow property a good deal
- Using last year's tax bill on a property that just sold well above its assessed value
None of this means avoid investing. It means a spreadsheet returns whatever you feed it, so the discipline is in the inputs. If a property still works with conservative figures, that is genuine information worth acting on.
Calculator and Metric Questions
What the numbers mean, which assumptions to trust, and where this tool deliberately stops.
- There is no universal number, and honest investors disagree. Many local buy-and-hold investors treat anything positive after full reserves as workable in this market, because Northern Colorado has historically traded lower yield for stronger demand and appreciation. What matters more is whether the number stays positive when you raise vacancy and maintenance to conservative levels. A property that only works with 2% vacancy and no CapEx reserve is not cash flowing, it is borrowing from a future repair.
- Cap rate ignores your loan entirely. It divides annual net operating income by the purchase price, which measures the property itself and lets you compare two buildings on equal footing. Cash-on-cash divides your annual cash flow, after the mortgage payment, by the actual cash you put in. Cap rate answers whether the asset is priced well. Cash-on-cash answers whether your specific deal structure produces a return you would accept. Leverage can raise cash-on-cash while cap rate stays flat, and that same leverage raises your risk.
- Five to eight percent is a reasonable planning range for a stabilized long-term rental in most Northern Colorado submarkets, which is roughly two to four weeks of turnover per year. Use the higher end if the unit is a studio or a niche layout, if the neighborhood turns over quickly, or if you plan to self-manage from out of town. Do not model zero vacancy. Even a great tenant eventually leaves, and the month you spend painting and re-listing is a real cost.
- Yes, and combining them is one of the most common modeling mistakes. Maintenance covers the recurring small things: a failed disposal, a leaking valve, a service call. CapEx covers the large, predictable, infrequent replacements: roof, furnace, water heater, windows, exterior paint. Maintenance shows up every year. CapEx shows up once and hurts. Reserving five percent of rent for each keeps a single roof replacement from erasing four years of returns.
- Because it tells you whether the property could carry itself if you ever needed it to. DSCR is net operating income divided by annual debt service. Lenders offering DSCR-style investor loans commonly look for 1.20 or better, and many will not go below 1.00. Even if you are not using that product today, running the ratio tells you whether a future refinance is realistic. If DSCR is under 1.00, the property does not cover its own debt from operations, and you are subsidizing it from your income.
- As a screening filter, yes. As a decision rule in Northern Colorado, rarely. The rule asks whether monthly rent equals at least one percent of purchase price, which is a fast way to sort a long list. Very few Front Range properties clear it at current prices. Treat a pass as a signal worth a closer look and a fail as normal for this market, then let the actual cash flow and DSCR figures make the decision.
- No, and that is deliberate. This tool models operations: what the property collects and spends each month, and what is left. Appreciation is a forecast, not a number you can verify today. Depreciation and the tax treatment of rental income depend on your personal situation and belong with your CPA. Adding speculative upside to an operating model is how spreadsheets start telling people what they want to hear.
- Yes. Every figure you enter is written into the page address, so you can copy the link from your browser bar and send the full analysis to a partner, your lender, or to Brandon. Nothing is stored on this site and no email is required to see your result.
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Send the listing and get real rent comps, a conservative expense review, and an honest answer on whether the deal holds up.