Property Cash Flow Calculator (Monthly)

Enter monthly rent ($2,400), any other income such as parking or laundry ($0), and a vacancy rate (5%). Vacancy comes off both, so effective income is $2,400 × 0.95 = $2,280.

Enter the monthly property tax ($200), insurance ($90), maintenance reserve ($120) and HOA ($0), then the management fee percentage (8%). The fee is charged on collected income, $2,280, not on the full rent, which makes it $182.40. Total operating expenses are $592.40.

Enter the mortgage payment ($1,300). If your tax and insurance are escrowed into the lender's payment, enter principal and interest here, or zero out the tax and insurance lines. Counting them twice is the most common input error.

The panel shows monthly cash flow $388, annual cash flow $4,651, DSCR 1.30, monthly NOI $1,688 and operating expenses $592, rounded to whole dollars.

Effective Monthly Income = (Rent + Other Income) × (1 − Vacancy Rate)

Management Fee = Effective Monthly Income × Management Fee %

Monthly Operating Expenses = Property Tax + Insurance + Maintenance + HOA + Management Fee

Monthly NOI = Effective Monthly Income − Monthly Operating Expenses

Monthly Cash Flow = Monthly NOI − Mortgage Payment; Annual Cash Flow = Monthly Cash Flow × 12

DSCR = Monthly NOI ÷ Mortgage Payment. With no mortgage payment entered, DSCR is reported as 0 rather than infinite. Vacancy and management percentages are capped at 100%, and negative inputs are treated as zero.

Keep every income and expense input from the first example, so NOI stays at $1,687.60, and change only the financing: a $208,000, 30-year loan.

At 6.0%, principal and interest are $1,247.07 a month. Cash flow is $440.53 a month, $5,286.42 a year, and DSCR is 1.35.

At 7.5%, the payment rises to $1,454.37. Cash flow falls to $233.23 a month, $2,798.81 a year, and DSCR drops to 1.16.

A 1.5-point rate difference adds $207.30 to the payment, cuts cash flow by 47%, and moves DSCR from above 1.25 to below 1.20, the difference between clearing a common lender minimum and missing it, on the same house with the same tenant. To hold DSCR at 1.25 this property can support a payment of about $1,350; at 1.20, about $1,406. Price the principal-and-interest payment for each rate quote before entering it here.

DSCR measures how many times NOI covers the mortgage payment. Read the result against these bands:

• Below 1.00: NOI does not cover the payment; the shortfall comes out of your pocket every month.
• 1.00 is break-even: NOI exactly equals the payment, with nothing left for repairs or a vacant month beyond what you budgeted.
• 1.20: the minimum amortizing DSCR Freddie Mac Multifamily lists for its Top Small Balance Loan markets.
• 1.25: the minimum it lists for Standard markets. Its smaller markets require 1.30 and 1.40.

Those Freddie Mac tiers come from its Small Balance Loan Program Overview (data as of 30 June 2026) and apply to multifamily loans of five units or more. Lenders offering investor loans on one-to-four-unit rentals set their own DSCR minimums and may calculate NOI differently, for example with a fixed vacancy allowance, so ask each lender which figure it uses before relying on a result near a threshold.

A higher DSCR is not the same as a good deal. A property at 1.30 can still produce only a small amount of cash each month, which is why the calculator shows the dollar figure alongside the ratio.

A self-managed condo at $1,900 rent plus $50 other income, 6% vacancy, $180 tax, $75 insurance, $100 maintenance and $275 HOA against a $1,300 payment has $1,833 of effective income and $1,203 of NOI. Cash flow is −$97 a month (−$1,164 a year) and DSCR is 0.93. Without the HOA dues the same unit would clear $178 a month, so the dues alone turn it into a shortfall, even with no management fee.

An overleveraged house at $1,600 rent, 8% vacancy, $300 tax, $120 insurance, $150 maintenance, a 10% management fee and a $1,500 payment has $754.80 of NOI and loses $745.20 a month, with a DSCR of 0.50. Rent would have to reach $2,500 (56% more) just to bring cash flow to zero and DSCR to 1.00, which usually means the purchase price or the loan does not match what the property can earn.

Short-term rentals need a different starting point, because nightly rates and occupancy do not convert neatly into monthly rent. The Airbnb ROI guide walks through occupancy-driven revenue, cap rate and cash-on-cash return, and a short-term rental revenue estimate built from nightly rate and occupancy gives you the monthly income figure to enter here.

This is a monthly cash snapshot. It does not separate capital expenditure such as a roof or HVAC replacement from routine maintenance, so fold a reserve into the maintenance line. It ignores appreciation, principal paydown, depreciation and income tax, all of which affect total return but not this month's cash.

Vacancy is applied evenly across the year, while real vacancy arrives in lumps. The mortgage payment is a single fixed number, so adjustable rates, interest-only periods and refinancing need to be priced separately. Lenders underwrite DSCR with their own rent and expense assumptions, so your figure and theirs can differ.

For the return on the cash you put in (cap rate and cash-on-cash return alongside cash flow), use the rental property ROI calculator. If you plan to buy, renovate and refinance, the BRRRR calculator shows how much cash stays in the deal; run the post-refinance payment back through this page to confirm the property still cash-flows. The net operating income calculator isolates NOI on an annual basis, and the rental yield calculator compares gross and net yield against the purchase price. To find the rent at which the property only just covers itself, the break-even rent calculator solves for it directly, treating management and reserves as costs that scale with rent.