This calculator is here for you to play with. Every number it returns is for example purposes only - your real deal numbers may, and very likely will, vary. Nothing here is a guarantee, an offer, or a prediction. Before acting on any of it, confirm the financing with a lender or licensed loan officer, the tax treatment with a CPA, and the contract terms with a real estate attorney.
Key Performance Indicators
For example purposes only. These results are only as good as the assumptions you typed in - change one input and they all move. Not a guarantee of performance or of any specific outcome.
Purchase & Financing Results
For example purposes only. Rates, terms, PMI, and what you actually qualify for are set by your lender, not by this tool. I am a REALTOR®, not a lender or a licensed loan officer - get real numbers from a lender or licensed loan officer before relying on them.
Cash Flow Analysis (monthly)
Tax Deduction Summary (10-yr)
For example purposes only - and tax is the line where estimates go wrong fastest. Depreciation, deductions, passive-loss limits, and recapture all depend on your personal tax situation. I am not a CPA, an accountant, or a tax attorney, and this is not tax advice. Confirm every figure here with a licensed tax professional before counting on it.
What does your housing actually cost?
The same home, three ways. House hacking is measured against buying a home to live in with no tenants - not just against renting.
Traditional buy & live (no tenants)
Once fully rented (you move out)
True Equity at sale
For example purposes only. What you actually walk away with depends on your sale price, the commissions and closing costs in effect at that time, your loan payoff, and your tax situation - including any depreciation recapture. Not a guarantee. Confirm with a CPA, and confirm contract terms with a real estate attorney.
Everything house hacking builds over the hold, minus the real cost to sell and taxes owed.
Year-by-Year Returns year 0 → 40
For example purposes only. This projects up to 40 years from a handful of assumptions, so small differences in rent growth, appreciation, or expenses compound into very large differences by the end. Treat it as a way to see how the levers behave - not as a forecast, and not as a guarantee.
Adjust the levers and watch the whole hold change. “True equity if sold” already nets out every cost to sell and taxes owed that year.
Swipe the table sideways to see all 18 columns - the Year column stays put.
What each column means
- Year
- 0 is closing day. Year 1 is your first full year of ownership.
- Phase
- Whether you live in it that year or it is fully rented. Driven by Years you live in it.
- Rent
- Rent collected that year. While you live there the unit you occupy is excluded, because you are not paying yourself rent.
- Expenses
- Operating costs only: taxes, insurance, management, vacancy, maintenance, CapEx and HOA. Loan payments are not in here. They are split into Interest and Principal.
- Cash flow
- Rent minus expenses minus the full loan payment, for that year alone.
- Cumulative cash flow
- The running total of every dollar in and out of your pocket, starting with your cash to close. Negative in the early years is normal, not a red flag.
- Interest
- The share of the year's payments that goes to the lender. Often deductible, though that depends on your situation.
- Principal
- The share that pays the loan down. Not an expense: it is equity you keep, and once the unit is rented your tenant is the one paying it.
- Loan bal
- What you still owe at the end of that year.
- Value
- Projected property value, grown by your Appreciation %/yr. A projection, not an appraisal.
- Equity $
- Value minus Loan bal. A position on paper, before any cost to sell.
- Equity %
- Equity $ as a share of Value. 22% is where PMI can usually come off, often through a refinance.
- LTV
- Loan balance as a share of Value, the inverse of Equity %. Lenders price a refinance off this number.
- Deprec.
- The depreciation deduction taken that year. A paper deduction, not cash leaving your pocket.
- Tax benefit
- Estimated tax saved from depreciation and interest at your bracket. The most assumption-heavy column on the table.
- Apprec.
- The value added that year by appreciation alone, separate from loan paydown.
- Net sale
- Sale price minus selling costs minus loan payoff, if you sold in that year.
- True equity if sold
- The honest number. Net sale minus the taxes owed, including depreciation recapture and capital gains. This is what would actually reach you.
Shaded rows: your hold year, break-even, the first year selling does not lose money, the year equity reaches 22%.
Every figure is an estimate built from the assumptions you entered. Confirm financing with a lender and tax treatment with a CPA.
BRRRR buy · rehab · rent · refinance · repeat
For example purposes only. A BRRRR depends on an appraisal and refinance terms that do not exist yet - the after-repair value here is an assumption, not an appraisal, and no lender has committed to anything. Rehab budgets routinely run over. Not a guarantee. Confirm the refinance with a lender or licensed loan officer and the scope with a licensed contractor.
How much of your capital comes back out at the refinance - and what the property does once it's rented with the new loan.
Risk check
The refinance is based on ARV (after-repair value), not what you paid. Be conservative with ARV and generous with rehab - that's where BRRRR deals go wrong.
Flip buy · renovate · sell
For example purposes only. Flip math is the most sensitive on this page - rehab overruns and days on market both cut straight into profit. A property sold inside twelve months is generally taxed as ordinary income rather than long-term capital gains, which is a material difference. I am not a CPA or a tax attorney - confirm tax treatment with a licensed tax professional and the rehab scope with a licensed contractor. Not a guarantee.
Profit after every cost, and what that return looks like annualized over how long you hold it.
Risk check
Holding costs are the silent killer: taxes, insurance, utilities and loan interest every month you own it. Estimate the timeline long, not short.
What can you afford? income → max price
For example purposes only. This works backward from ratios lenders commonly use, but the only number that counts is the one on a real pre-approval. I am a REALTOR®, not a lender or a licensed loan officer - talk to a lender before shopping at any price.
Works backward from your income and debts to the purchase price a lender is likely to support.
Stress test & house-hack uplift
This is an estimate of what you can borrow, not what you should spend. Lenders vary and this is not a pre-approval - talk to a lender for a real number.