Analyze rental properties with Cap Rate, Cash-on-Cash return, 1% Rule, DSCR, GRM, and 5-year projections. Multi-metric investment analysis.
| Year | Property Value | Equity | Annual CF | Cumulative CF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $412,000 | $95,471 | $-5039 | $-5039 |
| 2 | $424,360 | $111,528 | $-4655 | $-9694 |
| 3 | $437,091 | $128,197 | $-4262 | $-13957 |
| 4 | $450,204 | $145,503 | $-3862 | $-17819 |
| 5 | $463,710 | $163,475 | $-3454 | $-21273 |
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Every serious rental metric is a ratio, and almost all of them share the same numerator. Net Operating Income is what the property earns after vacancy and running costs but before the mortgage — that last part is what makes it a clean way to compare buildings regardless of how each buyer financed them. Divide NOI by the purchase price and you get the cap rate, an unlevered yield you can compare with any other property on the market. Subtract the mortgage from NOI and you get cash flow; divide that by the actual cash you took out of your pocket (down payment plus closing costs) and you get cash-on-cash return. The two can disagree violently, and the disagreement has a name: when your loan rate is higher than the cap rate, every borrowed dollar destroys return. That is negative leverage, and it is why a property with a perfectly respectable cap rate can still lose money every month. DSCR (NOI ÷ debt service) simply measures how much cushion the lender has — below 1.00 the rent does not cover the loan at all.
Left bar: gross rent split into vacancy, operating expenses, and the NOI that remains. Right bar: annual debt service — the bottom slice is exactly NOI, so the red block sitting on top of it is the shortfall. Cap rate divides NOI by price; cash-on-cash divides what survives the mortgage by the cash you invested.
Priya is running the numbers on a $400,000 duplex. She plans to put 20% down, finance the rest at 6.5% over 30 years, and charge $2,800 a month.
Analyze rental property investments: cap rate, cash-on-cash return, NOI, and 30-year projections. Compare multiple properties. Free.
This analyzer evaluates rental property deals on the metrics investors actually price: cap rate from net operating income, cash-on-cash return on invested capital, NOI after operating expenses, and full monthly cash flow including debt service. Enter purchase price, financing terms, rent, and the expense stack — vacancy, taxes, insurance, maintenance, management — and the tool projects returns over a 30-year hold with appreciation and rent growth assumptions, plus year-one realistic numbers. Multiple properties compare side by side, so the duplex at $320,000 and the single-family at $290,000 get graded on identical arithmetic rather than vibes.
Buyers screening listings before touring separate deals from duds in minutes — the 1% rule and cap rate kill most listings at the spreadsheet stage. New investors learn which expense assumptions make or break returns before tuition is paid on a real mistake. House-hackers pricing the rent-the-other-unit half of their decision see true effective housing cost. Portfolio owners comparing properties across markets apply identical expense and vacancy assumptions to expose regional differences. Sellers evaluating hold-versus-sell run the numbers on their own rentals before listing.
(1) Enter acquisition: price, closing costs, rehab budget, and down payment with loan rate and term. (2) Enter income: market rent, other income, and a vacancy rate — 5–8% is the honest default. (3) Enter the expense stack: taxes, insurance, maintenance reserve, management fee, HOA. (4) The analyzer computes NOI, cap rate, cash-on-cash, monthly cash flow, and DSCR; the 30-year projection layers appreciation, rent growth, and loan amortization into equity and returns. Comparison mode grades up to three properties on one table.
Both metrics answer different questions, and good depends on market and strategy. Cap rate — NOI divided by price — measures the property's unleveraged yield and prices risk: 4–6% marks expensive appreciation-bet markets like coastal metros; 7–10% marks cash-flow markets in the Midwest and South where the return is the rent, not the hope. Cash-on-cash — annual cash flow divided by your invested cash — measures what leverage buys you: healthy deals clear 8%+, and strong ones reach 12%+, though anything promising more deserves suspicion about the vacancy and maintenance assumptions behind it. The two combine into strategy: low cap rate with high appreciation expectations is a bet on the exit; high cap rate with modest growth is a bond made of tenants. Two disciplines keep both honest: never underwrite vacancy below 5% or maintenance below 8–10% of rent — the two lines where optimism quietly destroys returns — and always compute DSCR (NOI over debt service) at 1.25+, the threshold lenders and survival both demand.
Net Operating Income is what the property earns after vacancy and operating expenses but before the mortgage payment. Nearly every rental metric is a ratio on top of it: cap rate divides NOI by purchase price, cash-on-cash divides post-mortgage cash flow by the cash you invested, and DSCR divides NOI by debt service. Get the NOI inputs right and the rest of the analysis holds together.
It depends on the market and asset class, but US single-family and small multifamily rentals commonly trade between roughly 5% and 10%. A lower cap rate usually signals a pricier, appreciating market; a higher one signals more income relative to price — and often more risk or work. Compare cap rates within the same market rather than against a universal number.
Debt Service Coverage Ratio is NOI divided by the annual mortgage payment — how much cushion the rent leaves after the loan is serviced. Below 1.00, the property does not cover its own loan and you are feeding it every month; lenders typically want 1.20–1.25 or better on investment loans. The analyzer computes it alongside cap rate and cash-on-cash so leverage is visible, not hidden.
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