Rental Property Cash Flow Calculator

Rental cash flow calculator guide

Cash flow = NOI − annual debt service

Gross rent, also called gross scheduled income, is 12 times monthly rent plus other recurring income. NOI is effective gross income minus operating expenses. Debt service is the annual principal, interest, and PMI paid to the lender. Divide the result by 12 for monthly cash flow.

For a full walkthrough of NOI, debt service, and the cash-flow formula, read the rental cash flow formula guide.

The calculator is built to answer a simple question: after rent, vacancy, operating costs, and the mortgage, how much cash does the property actually produce? This free calculator runs that math in your browser and shows the result monthly and annually, along with cash-on-cash return, DSCR, a five-year outlook, and the rent or price the deal needs to hit your targets. Use it for single-family rentals, duplexes, small multifamily, house hacks, and BRRRR exits. This is a free cash flow calculator rental property owners can use entirely in the browser, with no signup and no spreadsheet.

What this rental cash flow calculator does

This free calculator turns a property's income, expenses, and financing into the numbers investors compare before an offer. Enter the purchase price, rent, vacancy, taxes, insurance, HOA, management, maintenance, capital reserves (CapEx reserves), utilities, and other costs. Add the loan terms or switch to an all-cash purchase. The calculator builds gross scheduled income, effective gross income, NOI, annual debt service, and cash flow, then reports monthly and annual cash flow, cash-on-cash return, DSCR, break-even occupancy, operating expense ratio, and cash invested.

The cash-on-cash return calculator goes deeper on the return on your cash, and the DSCR calculator tests lender coverage. This page also projects a five-year outlook, shows a rent-versus-interest-rate sensitivity table, and solves for break-even rent, the rent needed for your target cash-on-cash return, and the maximum price at your target cash-on-cash or DSCR. Use it for single-family rentals, duplexes, small multifamily, house hacks, and BRRRR exits. Nothing is sent to a server, and no signup is required.

Operating cash flow vs. free cash flow

Real estate investors use the term operating cash flow in two ways. Some mean net operating income (NOI): rental income after vacancy and operating expenses but before debt service. Others mean the cash left after the mortgage. This calculator shows both views. The NOI line is the before-debt operating result; the monthly and annual cash flow lines are after principal, interest, and PMI. If you searched for an operating cash flow calculator, use the NOI line for the property-level view.

Lenders often quote PITI: principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. This model separates principal, interest, and PMI into debt service and keeps taxes and insurance in operating expenses. The total cash outlay is the same, but the line items are split so NOI and DSCR stay comparable across properties.

Free cash flow usually means the cash left after debt service and CapEx reserves. This calculator includes the capital reserve percentage you enter in operating expenses, so the cash flow line is already after that reserve. If you want a before-reserve view, set the reserve to zero; if you want a conservative free cash flow estimate, include management, maintenance, and a realistic capital reserve. The same model works as a free cash flow calculator when you include those costs and the mortgage. Whichever convention you use, apply it consistently when you compare properties.

Rental property cash flow calculator Excel

If you want to build the model yourself, the row order matters more than the formulas. Start with gross scheduled income, subtract vacancy, subtract operating expenses to get NOI, then subtract annual debt service. Keep the mortgage out of operating expenses so you do not count it twice. The calculator's CSV export gives you a starting point, but the same line items work in a spreadsheet.

Two Excel mistakes are common: using the annual interest rate instead of the monthly rate in PMT, and forgetting that the loan term is in years while the payment is monthly. Use rate/12 and term*12. Keep the PMT sign convention consistent: =PMT(rate/12,term*12,-loan) returns a positive payment when the loan is entered as a positive number. Also remember that percentage expenses such as management, maintenance, and CapEx reserves are applied to gross scheduled income, not to collected rent. For a step-by-step walkthrough, read the rental cash flow formula guide.

Real estate cash flow calculator use cases

Use this real estate cash flow calculator to screen a listing before you tour it, compare two properties in different markets, or check a rent estimate against the mortgage. For a house hack, include the rent from the other units and the expenses you will pay as the owner-occupant. For a small multifamily property, use total rent and total expenses, then check cash flow per unit. For a BRRRR, run the post-refinance loan and rent to see whether the deal still cash-flows after the cash-out.

It is also useful for portfolio reviews and lender conversations. A lender may care about DSCR, while you care about the cash left after reserves. The calculator shows both. If you are setting rent on a vacant unit, the break-even rent and target cash-on-cash rent show how much room you have before the deal stops working. Pair the result with the cap rate calculator and the BRRRR calculator when you need the full deal picture.

Why use a rental property cash flow calculator in 2026

Financing costs, insurance quotes, and local vacancy can move a deal more than a small change in rent. A rental property cash flow calculator 2026 analysis should use current numbers, not a seller's pro forma. Get a written lender quote, a current insurance estimate, the actual tax bill, and rent comps from the same property type and condition.

Then stress-test the deal: raise the interest rate by 1 to 2 percentage points, lower rent by 5% to 10%, add a couple of points of vacancy, and increase the capital reserve. If the property still produces positive cash flow, the margin is more credible. The five-year outlook also shows how rent growth, expense growth, and appreciation change the result over time. The date on this page is not a forecast; it is a reminder to refresh the assumptions before you rely on the result.

Common rental cash flow mistakes

The most common mistake is double-counting the mortgage: including debt service in operating expenses and then subtracting it again. Other frequent errors are using the seller's rent instead of market rent, leaving out vacancy or management, treating cap rate as cash flow, and forgetting PMI, HOA dues, or owner-paid utilities. A positive monthly cash flow number is not automatically a good deal if the reserve is too low or the rent assumption is optimistic.

Also check the cash-invested convention. Cash-on-cash return changes depending on whether you divide by the down payment alone or by all-in cash invested, including closing costs, rehab, and lender fees. This calculator uses all-in cash invested for the headline result. Finally, remember what the model excludes: income taxes, depreciation, sale costs, lease-up timing, and automatic PMI removal. Read the methodology for the exact conventions, and use the rental property cash flow formula guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.