Free tool

Rental Cash Flow & DSCR Calculator

Enter the price, your financing and the rent. Get the monthly cash flow with every expense shown, plus the three numbers a lender will ask about. Free, no sign-up.

The purchase

$
%

$100,000 of your own cash

%
yrs

What it earns and costs

$
$

per year

$

per year

$

per month, 0 if none

%

of rent

%

0 if self-managed

%

of rent, set aside

Cash flow, every month
$78
Rent$3,200
Vacancy — 5% of rent−$160
Management — 8% of rent−$256
Maintenance reserve — 5% of rent−$160
Property tax−$400
Insurance−$150
Net operating income — before the mortgage$2,074
Mortgage (principal + interest) — $300,000 at 7%−$1,996
Your cash flow$78
Cap rate
6.2%
income ÷ price, ignoring the loan
Cash-on-cash
0.8%
on $112,000 in
DSCR
1.04
income ÷ mortgage

DSCR 1.04. It covers the mortgage, but with little margin — many lenders want 1.25.

You just typed in the rent, taxes and insurance.

ARVIQ finds all three for a real address — plus what the repairs will actually cost, priced from the listing photos. About 30 seconds. Your first one is free.

Analyze a real address →

Why cash flow is not rent minus mortgage

The arithmetic people do in their heads is rent minus the mortgage payment. It is the single most common way a rental turns out worse than expected, because the mortgage is only about half of what the property actually costs to own.

Between the rent arriving and the money being yours sit property tax, insurance, the weeks between tenants, the management fee, and the reserve for the day the water heater fails. Those are not pessimistic assumptions — they are the ordinary cost of owning a building, and every one of them is itemised above so you can argue with the numbers rather than the conclusion.

Cash flow = rent − operating costs − mortgage

Net operating income is that middle step: rent minus the operating costs, before the loan. It is the number lenders divide by, and the one that lets you compare a property against another buyer’s financing.

Common questions

What is DSCR and why do lenders care about it?

DSCR is the debt service coverage ratio: the property’s net operating income divided by its mortgage payment. At 1.00 the rent exactly covers the loan and nothing else. Most lenders on investment property want 1.25 or better, because that 25% cushion is what absorbs a vacancy or a broken furnace without you missing a payment. Below 1.00 the property loses money every month you own it.

What is the difference between cap rate and cash-on-cash return?

Cap rate measures the property; cash-on-cash measures your deal. Cap rate is net operating income divided by the price, and it deliberately ignores your mortgage — that is what makes it comparable between buyers. Cash-on-cash divides the money actually left in your pocket each year by the cash you actually put in, so it moves with your down payment and your interest rate.

Why subtract vacancy and maintenance when the property is occupied?

Because they are certainties spread thinly, not risks. Tenants move out, and the weeks between them are unpaid. Roofs, water heaters and appliances all fail on a schedule you do not control. Budgeting 5% of rent for each turns two unpredictable expenses into one predictable one — and a deal that only works when you ignore them is a deal that does not work.

Should I include property management if I plan to self-manage?

Run it both ways. Self-managing is a job you are paying yourself for, and a property that only cash-flows because you are doing the work for free is worth knowing about before you buy. Set management to 0% to see your number today, then put 8% back to see whether it still works the year you get tired, move away, or buy a fourth one.

Does this include closing costs?

Cash-on-cash assumes roughly 3% of the price in closing costs on top of your down payment, because that money is genuinely gone and leaving it out flatters the return. It does not include renovation — if the property needs work before it can be rented, add that to your cash in and expect the real return to be lower than this shows.

The hard part is the rent and the repairs

This calculator is only as good as what you type into it. ARVIQ takes a real address and works out the market rent, the repairs it needs priced item by item, and what it is actually worth — then runs this same maths on it.

Analyze a real address

Also useful: the 70% rule calculator for fix-and-flip deals.