Rental Property Calculator — Cap Rate & Cash-on-Cash ROI
Analyze a rental property before you buy: cap rate, cash-on-cash return, NOI, monthly cash flow with vacancy, management fees, and mortgage. Free, instant.
Listing photos do not show returns. Enter the purchase price, rent, and operating assumptions — vacancy, management, taxes, insurance, maintenance — and this calculator produces the numbers real investors screen with: net operating income, cap rate, cash-on-cash return, and monthly cash flow after financing.
Change one assumption at a time to see what moves the needle. Most deals that look fine at 0% vacancy stop penciling out at realistic 5–8% vacancy plus a management fee — this is the tool for finding that out before the inspection, not after closing.
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Rental ROI Calculator
Calculate cap rate, cash-on-cash return, and annual cash flow for rental property investments.
Cap rate and cash-on-cash return are simplified estimates. Actual returns depend on market conditions, tax situation, and property-specific factors. This is not investment advice.
Cap rate, cash-on-cash and the 1% rule — illustrated
Rental returns flow through a fixed pipeline. Start with gross rent, subtract vacancy to get effective income, subtract operating expenses (property tax, insurance, management, maintenance) to get Net Operating Income — the number used to price a property: cap rate = NOI ÷ purchase price. Paying the mortgage with NOI leaves annual cash flow, and dividing that by your cash down payment gives cash-on-cash return, the return on the money you actually risked. As a quick sanity check, the 1% rule says monthly rent should be about 1% of purchase price. In 2026, single-family cap rates typically run 4–8% depending on market, and many financed deals in pricey metros fail the 1% rule and go cash-flow negative.
Sample deal: $350,000 property, 20% down, $2,200/mo rent, 6.5% / 30-yr mortgage. Expenses stack before debt service; cap rate ignores financing while cash-on-cash includes it.
Dana buys a $350,000 house with $70,000 down (20%), rents it for $2,200/month, and holds a 30-year mortgage at 6.5%. She budgets 5% vacancy, 8% management, 1.5% maintenance, plus $4,200 tax and $1,500 insurance.
- Effective income:$26,400 gross − 5% vacancy ($1,320) = $25,080.
- Operating expenses:Tax $4,200 + insurance $1,500 + management 8% ($2,006) + maintenance 1.5% ($5,250) = $12,956.
- NOI and cap rate:NOI = $25,080 − $12,956 = $12,124 → cap rate $12,124 ÷ $350,000 = 3.5%.
- Debt service:Mortgage on $280,000 at 6.5%/30yr ≈ $1,770/mo ($21,240/yr) → cash flow −$9,116, cash-on-cash −13%, and rent fails the 1% rule.
About this rental property calculator
This page covers cap rate calculator rental, cash on cash return calculator, investment property ROI calculator, rental income property analysis — all the same underlying task as rental property calculator. The tool above is FreeToolHub's rental roi embedded in full: every feature works right here, and nothing you process is uploaded to any server.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cap rate for a rental property?
It varies by market: 5–6% is common in appreciating metro areas, 8%+ appears in smaller Midwest and Southern markets with more risk. Cap rate also ignores financing — a property with a mediocre cap rate can still deliver strong cash-on-cash returns with cheap leverage, which is why both numbers matter.
What is the difference between cap rate and cash-on-cash return?
Cap rate = NOI ÷ purchase price, measuring the property's unlevered return regardless of how you finance it. Cash-on-cash = annual pre-tax cash flow ÷ cash you actually invested, which includes the mortgage. Use cap rate to compare properties; use cash-on-cash to judge what your own money earns.