Rental Property Calculator

Written by Great Medico

Updated September 25, 2026 •3 min read

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Rental Property Calculator is useful when you want a fast answer without losing sight of the assumptions behind it. It combines rental income, operating expenses, debt service, initial cash, and longer-term property assumptions to summarize property cash flow and return measures.

What this calculator does

Rental Property Calculator combines rental income, operating expenses, debt service, initial cash, and longer-term property assumptions to summarize property cash flow and return measures. The visible inputs are rental property purchase price, annual gross rent, annual operating expenses, annual loan payments, initial cash invested, annual appreciation, annual rent growth, projection period, and selling costs at end of projection. Its result is driven by those values, so the calculation can be reproduced or stress-tested without relying on a hidden live-data feed.

How to use it

Enter Rental property purchase price, Annual gross rent, Annual operating expenses, Annual loan payments, Initial cash invested, Annual appreciation, Annual rent growth, Projection period, and Selling costs at end of projection. Keep all monetary inputs in the same currency; the currency selector formats results and does not perform foreign-exchange conversion. Enter percentage or rate fields on the scale displayed by the form; do not silently convert them to a different percentage or decimal convention. Keep the time period shown on the form consistent with the source value; convert it first if your source uses a different period. Before calculating, recheck Rental property purchase price, Annual gross rent, Annual operating expenses against the source values you intend to model. Use the labels on Rental Property Calculator as the source of truth and recheck any prefilled value before relying on the result.

How the calculation works

NOI = annual rent − operating expenses. Cash flow after debt service = NOI − annual debt service. Cash-on-cash return = cash flow ÷ initial cash invested; cap rate = NOI ÷ purchase price. Longer-term fields can be used for scenario projections. Rental Property Calculator applies that relationship only to the inputs represented on its form. If the result looks surprising, verify the entered values, units, and signs before interpreting the number.

Example

A $300,000 property with $30,000 annual rent, $10,000 operating expenses, $15,000 debt service, and $75,000 initial cash has $20,000 NOI, $5,000 cash flow, a 6.67% cap rate, and about 6.67% cash-on-cash return. The example is a math check for Rental Property Calculator; replace the sample values with your own inputs rather than treating the example as a target or recommendation.

How to interpret the result

Cap rate describes unlevered property income relative to price, while cash-on-cash return describes cash flow relative to the investor’s cash invested. They answer different questions and should not be used interchangeably. The number is most useful when compared with another scenario built from the same definitions.

Limitations and notes

Vacancy, repairs, capital expenditures, taxes, depreciation, financing changes, sale costs, appreciation, rent growth, and tax consequences can vary widely. Projection fields are assumptions, not guaranteed property performance. Recalculate when rates, prices, balances, dates, or policy assumptions change.