How Much Cash Flow Should Rentals Make? (2024)

Math is a vital component of real estate investing success. Understanding how your business makes money is imperative in helping it make more. To know how profitable your rental properties are, you’ll need to have a solid grasp on calculating rental property cash flow by using a rental property cash flow analysis.

Let’s explore how to calculate cash flow and perform a cash flow analysis for your rental property so you can see where you can make more money.

What is a Rental Property Cash Flow Analysis?

To learn how to generate a positive cash flow, you need to ensure you’re doing an accurate rental property cash flow analysis. This means that you’re looking at all the numbers involved with owning a rental property to ensure that the property can make you money. You must look at the numbers over several months to understand the whole picture.

This lets you account for times the unit isn’t rented or is being repaired. A cash flow analysis for your rental property gives you a broader picture of the costs associated with operating the property and the income it can provide.

What is Cash Flow?

Cash flow is the difference between a business’s income and operating expenses. In particular, for a real estate business, cash flow is the difference between the rental income and specific expenses, including:

• Mortgage financing
• Real estate taxes
• Homeowner’s insurance
• Home repairs
• Vacancies
• Utilities
• Capital expenditures

Income includes rent from multi-family or single-family rental properties and any miscellaneous expenses such as application or late fees, laundry expenses, and any other fees you collect.

A positive cash flow occurs when your rental income exceeds your operating expenses, and a negative cash flow occurs when your operating expenses exceed your rental income.

How To Calculate Rental Property Cash Flow

Cash flow might seem easy to calculate, but many people get it wrong. At its core, it is, in fact, simple. To calculate cash flow, you subtract your expenses from your income:

Cash flow = total income – total expenses

Easy enough, right? Then why do so many people screw this up? The fact is that while the equation is simple enough, the items that make up the equation are loaded with complexity. Let’s take a look at how to calculate rental property cash flow to get a better understanding of what goes into it:

Step 1: Calculate gross cash flow and income

Before you can calculate rental property cash flow, you need to know your income from the property. While the total income might be the same as the total rent, it often won’t. You may need to account for other sources of income, such as application fees, late fees, and laundry income. These must go into your calculation when analyzing your gross cash flow and income.

When analyzing a property for cash flow, it’s wise to list all possible sources of income—but be conservative. It’s best to err on the side of caution and assume you’ll get less than you hope to.

The biggest thing to remember with your investment property is that you want to do everything possible to increase cash flow. Even the little things can add up. Let’s take a look at potential expenses you need to factor into your investment cash flow analysis.

Step 2: Determine gross operation expenses

The gross operating expenses are the things you have to pay to operate your rental property. This will include taxes, mortgage payments, utilities you’re responsible for, and maintenance fees. Like with income, you need to account for all possible expenses and try to overestimate how much you think it will cost to ensure you have enough to cover emergencies or unforeseen mishaps.

Step 3: Calculate net operating income (NOI) before financing

Once you’ve made a list of all your monthly sources of income, you need to work out some simple math calculations to figure out your net operating income (NOI) generated by your real estate investment properties.

Here is the simple NOI formula:

Net operating income = gross rental income – operating expenses

After you’ve done your calculation, you can apply for financing, but the bank or private money lender will want to see this in your rental property cash flow analysis before they’ll be willing to lend you money. You’ll need to have enough NOI to take care of the property and have cash flow left over if you want the deal to attract lenders.

Step 4: Calculate net cash flow after mortgage payments

When you secure a lender for your rental property deal, you can finish your rental property cash flow analysis. You can figure out your net cash after making your mortgage payment. Net cash is the amount of money you have left after all expenses for the property are paid. You won’t know your net cash until you know the exact mortgage payment for each month.

Net cash tells you how much you’re actually making on a property, as it helps account for all liabilities owed for operating the rental unit.

Rental Property Expenses That May Reduce Cash Flow

Rental properties come with a lot of expenses, and if you fail to account for everything when completing your cash flow analysis, it can cause catastrophic failure for your business. When dealing with rental properties, these are some expenses you’ll encounter that you don’t want to leave out:

• Repairs
• Mortgage payment
• Mortgage insurance (PMI or MIP)
• Vacancy rate
• Property taxes
• Utilities (water, sewer, trash, electric, propane, natural gas, etc.)
• Catastrophe insurance (flood, fire, earthquake, property hazard)
• New appliances
• General upkeep, landscaping, and property management
• HOA fees/dues
• Office supplies/software
• Gas/mileage
• Payroll

To further complicate things, not all expenses will occur each month, so it is often best to calculate a certain percentage for those expenses when planning for the future.

For example, you may not have any vacancies right now, but you might assume your property will be empty one month out of the year. Therefore, you will want to include 1/12, or 8.3%, for your monthly vacancy expense.

You may choose to ignore some expenses, like office supplies and gas, on individual houses. But if you are buying a larger multi-family investment property, you should include it because it does add up quickly. Your expenses will vary depending on the rental property and location, but including each item on your cash flow calculation ensures you know how much goes out each month.

What Is the Average Cash Flow on a Rental Property

The average cash flow on a rental property is 7% to 8%; however, how much cash flow you actually earn varies significantly by location, property values, cost of living, property amenities, and rental demand. In addition, each real estate investor has different thresholds for what they consider good cash flow.

What Is “Good” Cash Flow for a Rental Property?

When considering a “good” cash flow for a rental property, you can aim for $100 to $200 in monthly cash flow per unit you buy. For a duplex, you would want to make $200 at a minimum; if it’s a fourplex, then $400 minimum. You want that to be cash flow left over in your pocket after all the bills have been paid.

Now, we say that, but there’s a caveat there. It truly depends on how big the deal is, right? Think about it this way: If you invest $1 million into any investment and make $100 a month, is that a good deal? It doesn’t sound like a terrific deal. But if you were to invest $500 and make $100 monthly, that’s the best investment in the world, right?

And so, the idea of cash flow per unit or cash flow per door is a great metric. But it’s only one metric that you can go by. There’s another metric that we care a lot about: cash-on-cash return.

What Is a “Good” Cash-On-Cash Return for a Rental Property?

Cash-on-cash returns are the percentage of your investment you make back this year in cash flow. To do some basic math, if you invested $1,000 and made back $100 in the whole year, that is a 10% return. Cash-on-cash return is how much money you made in profit in cash flow during the year divided by how much money you put into the deal.

So, going back to the question, is $100 or $200 monthly cash flow a good deal for a single-family house? The real question is, “How much money did you put into it?” That answer is what makes all the difference. The more money you put into the deal, the lower your cash-on-cash return. But if you’re putting cash in your pocket every month, it might be worth it.

Cash-on-cash example

Okay, let’s look at an example. Suppose you invested $74,000 and make $200 monthly for your rental. That’s $2,400 a year in income. That amount divided by your investment is 3.2%. Is a 3.2% cash-on-cash return a good deal? Not really.

Generally, the cash-on-cash amount you want to aim for is between 10% and 12%, with 12% being ideal. Why? Because, on average, the stock market has returned between 6% and 7% over the past 100 years. But you should want to get a lot better than that. So, 12% is the rule of thumb.

However, you can’t just rely on 12% because you also have to look at the total amount of cash flow. And here’s why. If you invested $1 into a real estate deal and made two bucks a year, is $2 a year in profit worth all the headaches of a real estate deal? Probably not for only $2 a year. But that’s a 200% cash-on-cash return, so shouldn’t you do it? No, because it’s only $2.

That’s why you need to look at both numbers. You want a cash-on-cash return of a minimum of 12%, but you also want the total profit to be worthwhile for your time and efforts. You might go slightly lower than 12% if you believe the market is doing really well appreciation-wise—like if property values will climb.

Other Calculations Helpful for a Rental Property Cash Flow Analysis

You can accurately perform a cash flow analysis when you have all the financial details about your rental property. But knowing how to calculate the right numbers for your investment goals is also necessary. Here are some of the other calculations for your rental property analysis:

Capitalization rate

Use the capitalization or cap rates to better understand the risk associated with owning the property. To calculate the cap rate of a property, use this equation:

Capitalization (Cap) rate = net operating income/current market value

Dividing the net operating income by the current market value tells you the capitalization rate or the return you can expect on your investment. This calculation only gives you a potential overview of the return you’ll see on your investment in a rental property. Still, it doesn’t consider many other factors you need for an accurate cash flow analysis.

Cash flow return on investment

Another important calculation you must include in your cash flow analysis is the cash flow return on investment. This number tells you how much the cash flow of a rental property will return based on its value and investment cost. You can calculate the cash flow return on investment using one of these formulas:

ROI = (NOI/cost of investment) x 100

ROI = (final value of investment – (initial value of investment/cost of investment)) x 100

Put your numbers into one of these formulas to get an understanding of what your cash flow return might be.

50% rule to calculate rental property cash flow

Another much quicker way to estimate cash flow is using a technique known as the 50% rule. This rule of thumb states that a rental property’s expenses tend to be about 50% of the income, not including the mortgage principal and interest (P&I) payment. The formula looks like this:

Cash flow = (total Income x 0.5) – mortgage P&I

The 50% rule is a good tool to analyze a rental property quickly but should never replace a thorough property analysis. Think of the 50% rule as a “quick filter” that allows you to estimate cash flow in under a minute. This enables you to analyze dozens of properties while looking for a potential deal on which you can run a more thorough analysis later.

1% rule to calculate rental property cash flow

You can also consider the 1% rule when calculating rental property cash flow. Using this simple rule, you’ll want the monthly rent to be no less than 1% of the price you pay for the asset. The rent can be equal to 1%, and to determine whether a property meets the 1% rule, you can assess how much a property costs versus how much money it brings in.

This simple calculation can tell you how much to charge in monthly rent. You can just multiply the purchase price by 1% and move the comma over two places. If the number is comparable to rents in the same area for similar properties, you can come out ahead.

Cash Flow Can Be Fluid

The BiggerPockets Calculator

It would be a shame not to mention that you can crunch all these numbers using the BiggerPockets Rental Property Calculator. While you can easily use a spreadsheet or the back of a napkin, using our online calculator to ensure your math is correct and that you’ve considered all the potential expenses is helpful.

By conducting a rental property cash flow analysis, you are scrutinizing the numbers and ensuring the success of what you set out to do with your real estate investment in the first place: make money.

How To Increase Your Cash Flow

You need to conduct a cash flow analysis to increase your cash flow. You always want your cash flow to be in the green. If you’re not making money on an investment, you contradict the entire point of investing in the first place.

Here are a few ways you can tip the cash balance in your favor:

Keep up with preventative maintenance

By keeping up with preventative maintenance, you create curb appeal and increase your chances of attracting tenants, which means less vacancy time for your rentals. Additionally, by maintaining the property, you increase the value of the purchase price when you are ready to sell the investment.

Attract long-term tenants

Check potential tenants’ rental history. Consider these questions when selecting new tenants:

• Do they typically stay in one place for a long time?
• What made them leave their last rental home?
• Have they ever broken a lease agreement?
• Have they ever been evicted?

These questions are essential for screening prospective tenants. The longer you can keep tenants in your rental units, the lower the vacancy rates. Try to pick tenants with strong social ties to the community, a stable job, and children in the local schools. These factors typically mean tenants are unwilling to pick up their roots and move elsewhere.

Appeal your property taxes

Potentially, property taxes can increase each year while you cannot annually raise your rental charges. You then run into the problem of a decrease in cash flow. You can appeal the increase in taxes by the local government if it seems unjustified. Start by looking at comparable rental properties, then start the appeal process at the county assessor’s office.

Refinance your property

Check with your lender and keep an eye on your mortgage interest rates. You may be able to lower your monthly mortgage rates, increasing your cash flow, if you observe falling interest rates and decide to refinance. Just be sure you factor in closing and lender fees.

Conclusion

You should be ready to calculate rental property cash flow for your potential rental unit. Just use the formulas and details in this guide to ensure you use the right numbers and include everything in your analysis to give you the best picture of your ability to earn money on your investment. Contact one of our agents if you need help with your real estate deal or understand how to calculate rental property cash flow.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.