Return on investment
ROI = (Net annual profit ÷ Total investment) × 100
A $320,000 all-in purchase earning $16,000 a year after expenses returns 5%. This is the honest headline number for a cash purchase.
Rental · Cash-on-cash · Fix & flip · Appreciation
Real estate ROI calculator
Know if a property is worth buying before you make the offer.
Four calculators that turn the spreadsheet investors rebuild every time into a single decision tool: rental yield and cap rate, cash-on-cash return with a real mortgage, fix-and-flip profit against the 70% rule, and long-run appreciation with equity build-up. Free, instant, and everything stays in your browser.
- ROI
- Profit ÷ Investment
- CoC
- Cash flow ÷ Cash in
- Cap rate
- NOI ÷ Price
- 70% rule
- Flip safety check
Calculators
Everything updates as you type. Nothing leaves your browser.
Saved scenarios
Save any calculation above and line the deals up side by side. Stored locally in this browser.
No saved scenarios yet — run a calculation and hit Save to compare.
| Scenario | Type | Cash in | Annual return | Return % | Verdict |
|---|
How the numbers work
Every figure on this page comes from one of these. No black boxes.
Net operating income
NOI = Effective rent − Operating expenses
Rent collected after vacancy, minus tax, insurance, maintenance, management and fees — but before mortgage payments. NOI is what the property earns, independent of how you financed it.
Cap rate
Cap rate = NOI ÷ Purchase price
The comparison metric between properties. It ignores your loan entirely, so two investors looking at the same building get the same cap rate.
Cash-on-cash return
CoC = Annual cash flow ÷ Cash invested
Put $100,000 down and clear $10,000 a year after the mortgage — that's 10%. Leverage can lift this well above the plain ROI, and can just as easily drive it negative.
Fix & flip profit
Profit = Sale price − Selling costs − Total project cost
Buy at $250,000, spend $50,000, sell at $400,000 with $20,000 of selling costs → $80,000. Holding costs and loan interest quietly eat this, so they're included.
Appreciation
Future value = Current value × (1 + growth)years
$400,000 growing 4% a year is about $592,000 after 10 years. Add a mortgage and the principal paid down compounds the equity on top.
A word on the output. These are projections from the assumptions you type in.
Vacancy, maintenance and growth rates are estimates, not guarantees — change one and the verdict can flip.
Treat the result as a screening tool, then verify with local comps, an inspection and your lender's numbers.
Frequently asked questions
The questions investors actually ask before running the numbers.
What is a good ROI on a rental property?
Most buy-and-hold investors look for 6% to 10% annual return on total cash invested. Anything under about 4% leaves almost no cushion for a vacancy, a new roof or a rate rise, and returns above 12% usually signal either a rough neighbourhood or optimistic assumptions worth double-checking.
How do you calculate ROI on a property?
Divide net annual profit by total investment and multiply by 100. A property bought for $300,000 with $20,000 of renovation costs $320,000 all in. If it earns $24,000 of rent and costs $8,000 a year to run, the net profit is $16,000 and the ROI is 5%. The rental calculator does this with vacancy and management fees included.
What is the difference between ROI and cash-on-cash return?
ROI measures return against every dollar the property cost. Cash-on-cash measures return against only the cash you actually put in, so it accounts for a mortgage. Put $100,000 down and clear $10,000 a year after the loan payment and the cash-on-cash return is 10%, even though the property itself may only yield 5%. Leverage cuts both ways — it can just as easily drive the figure negative.
What is the 70% rule in house flipping?
Never pay more than 70% of the after-repair value minus the renovation budget. On a house worth $400,000 after repairs needing $50,000 of work, the maximum offer is $400,000 × 0.70 − $50,000 = $230,000. The 30% margin absorbs holding costs, selling fees and overruns. The flip calculator flags any offer above that ceiling.
What is a good cap rate?
Cap rate is net operating income divided by purchase price, and it ignores financing entirely so two buyers looking at the same building get the same number. 4–5% is typical in expensive coastal markets, while 7–10% is common in the Midwest and South, where prices are lower relative to rent. Compare it against other listings in the same city, not across the country.
How much will my property be worth in 10 years?
Multiply the current value by (1 + growth rate) raised to the number of years. A $400,000 property appreciating 4% a year is worth about $592,000 after 10 years. If you hold a mortgage, the principal you pay down over the same period adds to your equity on top of that appreciation — the appreciation calculator charts both.
Coming soon
Where this goes from a calculator to a decision platform.
- Data
Property database connection
Search an address and load the listing instead of typing thirteen fields.
- Data
Live market prices
Pull comparable sales and local rent estimates automatically.
- AI
Price predictions
Model where value and rent are heading in a given neighbourhood.
- Scale
Bulk comparison
Score hundreds of properties at once and rank by return.
- Output
Investment reports
Lender-ready PDFs with assumptions, sensitivities and projections.
- AI
Buy / avoid recommendations
A clear call with the reasoning shown, not just a number.
Who's building this
One engineer, shipping end to end.
I build products end to end — frontend, backend, ML systems and deployment. I'm strongest at turning an idea into a working MVP quickly, putting it in front of users, and iterating. PropReturn is one of those: a proptech tool built to answer a real question with real maths.
- EducationB.S. Computer Science, University of Tokyo
- ExperienceSoftware Engineer, GMO Internet Group — 2022–2025
- NowBuilding AI products independently
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