Free rental property calculator
Real Estate Investment Calculator for Rental Properties
Analyze a rental property's projected returns, cash flow and financing—and see how your assumptions hold up against local market data.
Analyze a rental propertyFree rental property analysis. No spreadsheet required.
Sample figures for a fictional property. Your results will differ.
Beyond cash flow
A rental property calculator should tell you more than whether the rent covers the mortgage
A rental property's return comes from more than monthly cash flow. Rent, expenses, financing, appreciation, principal paydown and how long you hold the property all shape the outcome.
Looking at only one metric can hide what is really driving the deal. RentWise brings those pieces together so you can see how the investment may perform over time.
Rental income
Monthly rent and vacancy
Operating expenses
Taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.
Financing
Loan terms, interest rate
Rent growth
How rent may increase over time
Appreciation
Potential change in property value
Principal paydown
Build equity over time
Holding period
How long you own the property
Investment
performance
Cash flow is one piece of the return—not the whole story.
A property can have positive cash flow and still be a poor investment once you consider all the other factors.
Calculator outputs
What you can calculate with the RentWise rental property analysis calculator
Initial cash investment
How much cash you need upfront based on purchase price, down payment and acquisition costs.
Year 1 NOI
Projected rental income minus operating expenses, before financing.
Year 1 cash flow
Projected cash remaining after operating expenses and debt payments.
First positive cash-flow year
The first projected year in which the property generates positive annual cash flow.
Unlevered IRR
The property's projected annualized return without considering financing.
Levered IRR
The projected annualized return on your actual cash invested, after accounting for financing.
Return by holding period
How projected returns change depending on when you sell.
Sensitivity analysis
How changes in assumptions such as rent and appreciation affect projected returns.
See how these metrics come together in a full property analysis.
Run the numbersAssumption quality
Your rental analysis is only as good as your assumptions
A calculator can correctly compute a high projected return if you assume unusually high rent growth or appreciation. That doesn't mean the investment is likely to produce that return.
RentWise looks at two things: the projected investment result, and whether your key assumptions appear reasonable based on available local market evidence.
Check your assumptions against local market data
For supported U.S. properties, RentWise uses local data — rents, bedroom-level rents, household income, home values and historical growth — to test the rent-growth and appreciation assumptions you enter. The verdict follows fixed rules, and the written commentary can only make it stricter, never more lenient.
Supported
Direct local evidence covers the assumption: rent growth within or below the local historical range; appreciation within the local 5- and 10-year value trends when they agree, or close to the slower trend when a recent run-up has pulled them apart.
Aggressive
The assumption sits above the local evidence by up to 1 point, or it cannot be verified with local history — unverified is never treated as supported.
Unsupported
The assumption is more than 1 point above the local evidence, or exceeds 3% a year with nothing local to check it against.
What return should you expect?
Every analysis is classified into one of four investment profiles from our Rental Property Return Expectations guide, based on the property's net yield, rent growth and appreciation. If your projected long-term unlevered IRR is well above what that profile typically delivers, the tool flags the inputs as optimistic.
High Growth
- Net yield
- ~4%
- Rent growth
- ~3%
- Appreciation
- ~0–1%
Growth
- Net yield
- ~4%
- Rent growth
- ~2%
- Appreciation
- ~1%
Preservation
- Net yield
- ~3%
- Rent growth
- ~1.5%
- Appreciation
- ~1–2%
Defensive
- Net yield
- ~3%
- Rent growth
- ~1%
- Appreciation
- ~2%+
Typical long-term unlevered IRR (no mortgage) over a full holding period. Early-year returns are usually low or negative because of acquisition costs. These are illustrative patterns, not targets or guarantees.
Market data and projections are informational estimates, not guarantees of future performance or investment advice.
How to analyze a deal
How to analyze a rental property before you buy
A good rental analysis moves from what the property earns today to what could change over time. Work through these seven steps before relying on the projected return.
- Income
- Operations
- Financing
- Returns
- Risk
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Phase 1 · Understand the property today
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Estimate rental income
Expected monthly rent drives nearly every other number. Use realistic market rent for comparable units — not the best-case figure — and account for vacancy.
Market rent · Vacancy
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Calculate operating expenses
Include property taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, HOA fees, property management, landlord-paid utilities and other recurring property expenses. Underestimating expenses is one of the most common analysis mistakes.
Taxes · Insurance · Maintenance · HOA · Management
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Calculate NOI
Net operating income
NOI = Effective rental income − operating expenses
Mortgage payments are not included in NOI. NOI describes how the property performs before financing.
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Phase 2 · Model the investment
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Add financing
Your down payment, mortgage interest rate and loan term determine annual debt service. Financing can amplify the return on your cash — or reduce it when borrowing costs are high relative to the property's yield.
Down payment · Interest rate · Loan term
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Estimate long-term growth
Rent growth, operating expense inflation and property appreciation shape returns over time. Projected returns are highly sensitive to these assumptions, so choose them carefully.
Rent growth · Expense inflation · Appreciation
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Phase 3 · Test the deal
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Compare cash flow and total return
Cash flow and total return are related but different. A property may have modest near-term cash flow while building returns through equity growth and appreciation — or strong cash flow with lower appreciation.
Cash flow
What the property generates during ownership after expenses and debt payments.
Total return
The broader investment outcome, including cash flow, equity growth and appreciation.
Neither tells the full story on its own.
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Stress-test the deal
Don't rely on a single base case. Test how much room the deal has before the projected returns stop working.
- ↓ Lower rent
- ↓ Slower appreciation
- ↑ Higher expenses
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Ready to test a real property?
Analyze your next dealGlossary
Rental property investment metrics explained
Operating performance & yield
Net Operating Income (NOI)
Net operating income is the income a rental property generates after operating expenses but before mortgage payments and capital expenditures.
NOI = Effective gross income − operating expenses
Investors use NOI to understand a property's operating performance independent of how it's financed.
Year 1 NOI
Year 1 NOI gives a baseline view of expected operating performance during the first year of ownership.
Cash flow
Cash flow = rental income − operating expenses − debt payments
Cash flow is what's left after paying the mortgage. NOI excludes financing; cash flow includes it.
Cap rate
Cap rate = NOI ÷ property value
Cap rate helps compare current operating yield across properties. It does not capture financing, future appreciation or the timing of future cash flows.
Total return & leverage
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
IRR estimates the annualized return of an investment, considering all the cash flows across the entire holding period — and when they happen. Money received sooner counts for more than money received later.
Holding period
How long you plan to own the property before selling. It materially affects IRR because it changes how many years of cash flow you collect and when sale proceeds arrive.
Without financing
Unlevered IRR
Unlevered IRR estimates the property's projected return without considering financing.
How attractive does the property look on its own?
With financing
Levered IRR
Levered IRR estimates the return on the investor's cash after accounting for financing.
How attractive does the investment look with this financing?
If levered IRR is higher than unlevered IRR, financing is increasing the projected return on invested cash. If it's lower, financing is reducing it. Either way, leverage introduces additional risk.
Upfront capital
Initial cash investment
The upfront cash required to acquire the property, including the down payment and acquisition costs included in the analysis.
Growth & risk assumptions
Appreciation
The expected change in the property's value over time.
Rent growth
Projected annual increases in rental income.
Expense inflation
Projected annual increases in operating costs such as taxes, insurance and maintenance.
Sensitivity analysis
Shows what happens to projected returns when one or more assumptions change — revealing which inputs the deal depends on most.
Worked example
Rental property analysis example
Property inputs
Example only- Purchase price
- $400,000
- Down payment
- 25%
- Monthly rent
- $3,000
- Mortgage rate
- 6.5%
- Property taxes
- $6,000/year
- Other operating expenses
- $7,000/year
- Expected appreciation
- 3%
- Expected rent growth
- 3%
With these inputs, the calculator would estimate the upfront cash required, Year 1 NOI and cash flow after the mortgage, and when annual cash flow turns positive.
It would then project rent growth, expense inflation, appreciation and principal paydown across the holding period to estimate levered and unlevered IRR — and show how sensitive those returns are to changes in rent and appreciation, and whether 3% growth fits local market evidence.
Want to see how a real property looks?
Analyze a rental propertyFAQ
Frequently asked questions about rental property analysis
What is a real estate investment calculator?
How do you calculate whether a rental property is a good investment?
What is the difference between NOI and cash flow?
What is the difference between levered and unlevered IRR?
What expenses should I include in a rental property analysis?
How do you calculate ROI on a rental property?
Should mortgage payments be included in NOI?
How accurate is a rental property calculator?
What return should a rental property realistically deliver?
Know what the deal actually looks like before you buy.
Analyze projected cash flow, returns, financing and assumptions for your next rental property.
Start a rental property analysisFree to use. No spreadsheet required.
Already own rental properties?
Wondering whether to keep one? The Hold or Sell calculator shows the forward IRR you earn on the cash you could take out today — the return you would accept if you were buying it now. And RentWise helps self-managing landlords keep leases, rent payments, expenses, maintenance and documents organized in one place.
Explore RentWise property management featuresProjections are based on user-provided assumptions and actual results may vary. Market and property data should be independently verified. RentWise does not provide investment, tax, legal or financial advice.