Rental Cash Flow Calculator

About this calculator

Rental cash flow is what is actually left in a landlord's pocket each month after every real expense is paid: monthly rent collected, minus operating expenses (property management, maintenance, insurance, property tax, vacancy allowance), minus the mortgage payment (principal and interest). This differs from net operating income (NOI), which stops before subtracting the mortgage — cash flow is the number that matters once financing is factored in.

Real estate investors use monthly and annualized cash flow as the bottom-line test of whether a rental property is actually profitable to hold, not just on paper but in real money hitting the bank account. A property can look attractive on cap rate or appreciation potential and still have negative cash flow if the mortgage payment outweighs rent minus expenses, which is why this figure is often the deciding factor in a buy or pass decision.