One calculator for every number that matters on a rental — cash flow, cap rate, cash-on-cash, and DSCR. Enter your deal once; we do the math.
The price you're paying for the property.
Investment loans typically require 20–25% down.
Annual rate. Investor loans usually price above owner-occupied rates.
Years. Most rental loans are 30-year.
Total rent collected per month, before vacancy and expenses.
Share of rent lost to turnover. 5–8% is typical.
Annual property tax bill.
Annual landlord / hazard insurance premium.
Share of gross rent reserved for upkeep. 5–10% is common.
Share of collected rent paid to a PM. Set 0 if self-managed.
Monthly HOA or condo association dues, if any.
Utilities you pay (not the tenant). Often 0 on single-family.
Lender fees, title, escrow, inspection — out-of-pocket at closing.
Initial repairs before the unit is rent-ready.
Cash-on-Cash Return
0.8%
Positive, but under what most investors target. Common in pricier, appreciation-focused markets. Worth comparing against what the same cash would earn elsewhere.
Cash-on-cash is your pre-tax return on the cash you actually invested.
Annual effective rent, operating expenses, and debt service — what's left over is your cash flow. The dashed line is the rent you need just to break even.
Every cost held fixed, rent varied. See the rent you'd need to land in the 8–12% target band. The amber dot is your numbers.
For informational purposes only. Computed from the data you provide; not investment, tax, or financial advice. Consult a qualified advisor before acting on any figure.
Keystone IQ tracks NOI, cap rate, cash-on-cash, and DSCR live for every property you own — refreshed every page load. It pulls income, expenses, and mortgage payments straight from your bank and servicer, so the numbers are always current without a spreadsheet.
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On a rental, "ROI" usually means cash-on-cash return: the annual pre-tax cash flow the property produces, divided by the cash you actually invested to buy it. Cash flow is your effective rent (gross rent minus a vacancy allowance) minus operating expenses minus the mortgage principal-and-interest payment. Cash invested is everything you wrote a check for — down payment, closing costs, and any upfront rehab.
This calculator computes that headline cash-on-cash figure, and alongside it every other number that matters on the deal: net operating income (NOI), cap rate, debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), and your monthly mortgage payment — so you can size up a property from one screen instead of five.
NOI is the property's income after operating expenses but before the mortgage — it's what the asset earns on its own. Cap rate (NOI ÷ purchase price) is the unlevered yield, the apples-to-apples way to compare two properties. Cash flow is the dollars left in your pocket each month after the mortgage. Cash-on-cash is that cash flow as a percentage of the cash you invested — your levered return. DSCR (NOI ÷ annual debt service) is what a lender checks to see if the property covers its loan; most want 1.20 or higher.
Read together, they tell a complete story: cap rate for comparing, cash flow and cash-on-cash for your return, DSCR for financeability.
Cash-on-cash return is a single-year, pre-tax snapshot. It deliberately ignores three things that drive your total return: principal paydown (every mortgage payment builds equity), appreciation (often the largest wealth lever in real estate), and tax treatment (depreciation can shelter much of the cash flow from tax).
It also says nothing about year two and beyond. A property at 6% cash-on-cash today with below-market rents and a renewal coming up can be a better hold than one already maxed out at 10%. Use this calculator to screen a deal at purchase, then track it over time alongside equity growth and a multi-year cash-flow forecast.
The most common measure of rental ROI is cash-on-cash return: annual pre-tax cash flow (effective rent minus operating expenses minus the mortgage payment) divided by the cash you invested (down payment plus closing costs plus upfront rehab). Cap rate, DSCR, and total return (which also counts appreciation and loan paydown) are complementary lenses this calculator shows alongside it.
Cash flow is the dollars left after every expense and the mortgage. Cap rate is the unlevered yield on the purchase price (it ignores financing) — use our Cap Rate Calculator to compare deals. Cash-on-cash is the levered return on the actual cash you put in — see the Cash-on-Cash Calculator for that metric in isolation. This hub computes all three at once.
Property tax, insurance, a maintenance reserve, property-management fees, HOA dues, owner-paid utilities, and a vacancy allowance. Exclude the mortgage from NOI and cap rate (it's financing, not an operating cost), but include it in cash flow, cash-on-cash, and DSCR. A maintenance reserve of 5–10% of rent and a vacancy allowance of 5–8% keep the numbers honest.
Most buy-and-hold investors target 8–12% cash-on-cash, but it depends on your market and strategy. In appreciation-heavy markets, 4–6% can be acceptable because you're buying future value. Returns well above 12% are usually the product of heavy leverage or optimistic assumptions — re-check them with a realistic vacancy allowance and CapEx reserve before you act.
Yes. It computes your monthly principal-and-interest payment from the purchase price, down payment, interest rate, and loan term, then folds it into cash flow, cash-on-cash, and DSCR. NOI and cap rate intentionally exclude it. For an all-cash purchase, set the down payment to 100% and the mortgage drops to zero.
DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) is NOI divided by annual debt service — it's how a lender measures whether the property's income covers its loan. Most rental lenders want at least 1.20. A rental ROI hub surfaces it because a great cash-on-cash deal you can't finance isn't a deal yet. See the dedicated DSCR Calculator to explore it on its own.
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