Enter rent, vacancy, management fee, maintenance, fixed costs, and the mortgage payment to see effective gross income, total expenses, and monthly and annual cash flow.
Beyond the mortgage payment: property tax, insurance, HOA or condo fees, a maintenance reserve (commonly 5-10% of rent), property management if you use one (typically 8-12% of collected rent), and an allowance for vacancy between tenants. This calculator covers all of those. What it doesn't cover: capital expenditures like a new roof, water heater, or HVAC system — those are large and infrequent enough that they're better budgeted separately as a dedicated reserve fund rather than folded into a monthly percentage.
It depends heavily on local rental demand and lease turnover, but 5% — roughly 2 to 3 weeks vacant per year — is a common baseline assumption in stable markets, while higher-turnover markets or short-term/furnished rentals often budget 8-10% or more. Check local vacancy rate data for your specific market and property type rather than relying purely on a national average.
Both models exist. A percentage of collected rent (commonly 8-12%) is more common for long-term residential rentals since it scales naturally with rent and management effort, while flat monthly fees show up more often for simpler properties or self-managed portfolios using software. This calculator uses a percentage since it's the more common structure; if your management fee is a flat dollar amount instead, convert it to a rough percentage of rent to use the field, or simply fold it into the HOA field as an extra fixed monthly cost.
This tool is the detailed line-item operating worksheet — useful for ongoing monthly budgeting on a property you already own or manage. The companion Real Estate Investment Calculator gives the summary cap-rate and cash-on-cash return view instead, which is more useful when deciding whether to buy a property in the first place, before you have a specific mortgage payment and full expense history to work with.
Worked example: $2,200/month rent with 5% vacancy gives an effective gross income of $2,090. An 8% management fee and 5% maintenance (both computed against that $2,090 effective rent, not the full $2,200) come to $167.20 and $104.50, plus $250 tax + $100 insurance + $50 HOA — a total of $671.70 in monthly expenses. Against a $1,200/month mortgage payment, that leaves a monthly cash flow of about $218.30, or $2,619.60 per year. Raise the mortgage payment closer to $1,400 and the same property turns cash-flow negative — a reminder that financing terms can flip a deal's monthly outcome even when rent and expenses stay identical.
Comparing whether to buy this property in the first place? See the Real Estate Investment Calculator for cap rate and cash-on-cash return.