Rental Property Cash Flow Calculator
The full analyzer behind the screening numbers — every expense line visible, a 5-year projection with its growth assumptions printed, and nothing hidden in a black box.
Education only — not investment advice. Percentage expenses are taken on effective gross income (this page’s stated convention); growth rates and appreciation are your assumptions, compounded, not forecasts.
EDUCATION ONLY — NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE. Every figure is your scenario run through standard formulas. Rent growth, expense growth, and appreciation are assumptions you set; the projection shows what those assumptions produce, not what will happen.
How the math works
Year one: effective gross income (EGI) = rent × 12 × (1 − vacancy). Operating expenses = taxes + insurance + management, maintenance, and CapEx (each a % of EGI — the convention on this page, stated because other tools take them off gross rent) + other monthly × 12. NOI = EGI − expenses, mortgage excluded by definition. Cash flow = NOI − debt service on your loan. Cap rate = NOI ÷ price; cash-on-cash = cash flow ÷ (down payment + closing costs); DSCR = NOI ÷ debt service; GRM = price ÷ gross annual rent.
Years 2–5: rent grows at your rent-growth rate; the dollar expenses (taxes, insurance, other) grow at your expense-growth rate; the percentage expenses ride EGI automatically. Taxes growing at expense growth is a modelling choice — Prop 13 parcels actually grow at the capped assessment rate, and the Long Beach Property Tax Calculator shows that basis line by line. Appreciation is reported separately as value, never blended into cash flow.
A worked example
A $425,000 Long Beach rental at $3,200/mo rent, 25% down at 6.75%/30 yr, 5% vacancy, $6,500 tax, $2,100 insurance, 8% management, 5% maintenance, 5% CapEx, $100/mo other: EGI $36,480, expenses $16,366, NOI $20,114 — cap rate 4.73%, DSCR 0.81. Debt service of $24,809 leaves cash flow at −$391/mo and cash-on-cash at −4.18%. Year 5, at 2% growth on both sides, the bleed narrows to −$253/mo. That is honest Long Beach math at today’s prices and rents — the analyzer’s job is to show it before the purchase does.
Questions from the field
What is a good cash-on-cash return? There is no universal line — it depends on market, leverage, and what you count as cash invested. This page’s convention is down payment + closing costs, stated on the page; compare deals on one convention, not across tools that define it differently.
Why is the cash flow negative? Because at $425,000 with 25% down and a 6.75% loan, $3,200 rent does not cover debt plus a real expense stack. Coastal California deals often pencil on appreciation and rent growth, not year-one cash flow — the 5-year table shows exactly how much of that story you are underwriting.
What expenses do landlords forget? CapEx and vacancy. Roofs, water heaters, and turns are real costs that arrive lumpy; the percentage lines smooth them into the math monthly, which is why they are separate inputs instead of buried in “maintenance.”
Is the 5-year projection a forecast? No. It is your growth assumptions, compounded. Change the two growth rates and watch the story change — that sensitivity is the point of printing them.
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