Rental cash flow & cap rate

Does the deal actually pencil? Cash flow, NOI, cap rate, and cash-on-cash — with the expenses new investors usually forget already built in.

The purchase

Income & operating costs

Cap rate is calculated on purchase price using NOI (before debt service). Cash-on-cash uses your actual cash in — down payment plus closing costs plus rehab.

Result

    Estimates only — not a formal net sheet, loan estimate, or tax advice.

    Get a precise number from Sarah

    How it works

    The expenses that turn a good deal into a bad one.

    The fastest way to talk yourself into a bad rental is to subtract the mortgage from the rent and call the difference profit. Vacancy, management, maintenance, and capital reserves are not optional — they're just deferred, and they arrive all at once.

    Cap rate tells you how the property performs independent of financing, which makes it the cleaner number for comparing two deals. Cash-on-cash tells you what your money is actually earning, which is usually the number you care about.

    Along the I-5 corridor, the variable worth watching right now is zoning. Lynnwood and Everett are both opening up to denser housing, which can change what a single lot is worth to a builder — sometimes more than the rental math alone suggests.

    Let's build the thesis

    Tell me your criteria — I'll bring the deals.

    I'll set you up for new multi-family and value-add alerts along the corridor, with the underwriting already started.

    Book a free consult