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.
At this page's own default income and expenses, monthly cash flow hits exactly zero at a $1,418.30 mortgage payment — not the "closer to $1,400" the existing example gestures at, which is actually still $18.30 positive. Above $1,418.30, the identical property turns cash-flow negative on paper even though rent, vacancy, and every expense line stayed the same; the financing terms alone decide which side of zero it lands on.
Raising vacancy from 5% to 10% cuts effective gross income by $110 (5% of $2,200) — but monthly cash flow only falls by $95.70, not the full $110. Management and maintenance fees are both charged as a percentage of collected rent, so they shrink right along with it: $14.30 of that $110 in lost rent would have gone straight to fees anyway, cushioning part of the hit rather than adding to it.
A new roof or HVAC system is real, eventually-certain spending, but it doesn't recur monthly the way tax or insurance does, so folding a rough estimate into this page's percentage fields would either understate the true reserve needed or distort the monthly numbers this tool is built to get right. For the higher-level question of whether a property is worth buying at all — cap rate and cash-on-cash return, before a specific mortgage and full expense history even exist — see the Real Estate Investment Calculator; for the mortgage payment itself, the Mortgage Calculator works out what that $1,200 or $1,418.30 actually buys in loan amount, rate, and term, and the Amortization Schedule Calculator breaks that same payment down month by month.
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. VA financing is limited to a primary residence, though multi-unit purchases can qualify if you live in one unit — the VA mortgage calculator covers the terms.