Rental analysis
Cash-on-Cash Return Calculator
Cash-on-cash return is your annual pre-tax cash flow — after the mortgage — as a percentage of the cash you actually invested. Where cap rate describes the property, this describes your deal, financing included. Every step is shown below.
The purchase
The rental
Informational only, not professional advice. This calculator computes a standard formula from the numbers you enter — it doesn't know your market, your loan quote, or your tax situation.
Methodology
Cash-on-cash return is defined as annual pre-tax cash flow divided by total cash invested (Investopedia: Cash-on-Cash Return). This calculator builds both sides of that fraction explicitly:
- Net operating income = (monthly rent × 12) − vacancy loss − operating expenses — the same steps as our cap rate calculator
- Annual debt service = monthly principal & interest × 12, using the standard fixed-rate amortization formula M = P·r(1+r)ⁿ / ((1+r)ⁿ−1) (Investopedia: Amortization)
- Annual pre-tax cash flow = NOI − annual debt service
- Cash invested = down payment + closing costs + initial repairs
- Cash-on-cash return = cash flow ÷ cash invested
Assumptions and limitations
- Debt service covers principal and interest only. If your lender escrows taxes and insurance, don't double-count them — they belong in operating expenses here, not the payment.
- The result is a first-year, pre-tax figure. Rents, expenses, and (with an adjustable rate) the payment all change over time; this is a snapshot, not a projection.
- Principal paydown, appreciation, and tax effects are deliberately excluded — cash-on-cash is a cash flow metric, not total return.
- Interest rate, vacancy, and expenses are your inputs. The output is only as realistic as the loan quote and expense estimate you feed it.
Last reviewed: July 2026
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cash-on-cash return on a rental property?
Many investors target 8–12% cash-on-cash, but there is no universal benchmark — the figure depends on your market, your financing terms, and how much risk you're taking. Leverage cuts both ways: a bigger loan can raise cash-on-cash when the property performs and turn it sharply negative when it doesn't. Compare deals against your own alternatives for the same cash, not against a quoted national number.
How is cash-on-cash return different from cap rate?
Cap rate is unlevered: NOI divided by purchase price, ignoring financing entirely — it describes the property. Cash-on-cash is levered: cash flow after the mortgage, divided by the cash you actually put in — it describes your deal. The same property shows one cap rate to every buyer but a different cash-on-cash return for every down payment and interest rate.
Does cash-on-cash return include principal paydown or appreciation?
No. Cash-on-cash measures only annual pre-tax cash flow — the money that actually hits your account. The part of each mortgage payment that pays down principal builds equity but isn't cash flow, and appreciation is unrealized until you sell or refinance. Total return includes those; cash-on-cash deliberately doesn't, which is why a deal can have low cash-on-cash and still be a good total-return investment (or vice versa).
What counts as cash invested?
Everything you paid out of pocket to acquire and stabilize the property: the down payment, closing costs, and any initial repairs or rehab needed to make it rent-ready. The loan amount is not cash invested — that's the lender's money. If you later put in more capital (a new roof, a renovation), your true cash basis grows and the original cash-on-cash figure overstates your return.
Related tools
Net operating income as a percentage of purchase price — the standard first-pass measure of what a rental earns before financing, with every step shown.
Open tool →NOI CalculatorItemize income and operating expenses line by line to get a property's net operating income — the number cap rates and appraisals are built on.
Open tool →Rental Cash Flow CalculatorThe full monthly pro-forma — gross rent through vacancy, operating expenses, and the mortgage to the cash in your pocket, monthly and annual, with every line shown.
Open tool →BRRRR CalculatorBuy, rehab, rent, refinance — how much of your capital the cash-out refinance pulls back out, the rental cash flow after the new loan, equity, and cash-on-cash.
Open tool →