

Which means that if a house meets the 1% rule, it doesn’t actually make 12%. This means in our example of a house that should rent for $1,000 a month, approximately $6,000 of the $12,000 you collect in rent annually is profit. If you want to calculate your cash flow, you need to deduct all the expenses listed above and then subtract your mortgage as well. IMPORTANT NOTE: This 50% expense rule does not include your mortgage. These are expensive items that don’t occur often, but need to be budgeted for. Note: Capital improvements are big, expensive updates to the property like replacing the roof, windows, HVAC, etc. Generically, these expenses are: maintenance, capital improvements, taxes, insurance, property management, and vacancy losses. If you are self managing, it’s fair to assume 40% expenses.

We haven’t deducted our expenses or mortgage costs from the rent yet! The 50% RuleĪccording to this rule, approximately 50% of your rent will go to expenses. Here’s where understanding the 50% rule can help. WOW, THAT’S AWESOME! I’M RICH (ON MONEY!!) That apparently means the investment makes 12% a year!!!! If a house will give you 1% of the purchase price each month in rent, then it gives you 12% of the purchase price each year. $100,000 home should rent out for at least $1,000 a month, or it would not be a good investment.
NOI CALCULATION BIGGER POCKET PLUS
It is purchase price plus the money to get the house ready to rent. The acquisition price may be a higher number than the purchase price. Monthly rent should be at least 1% of the acquisition price. Those two things are the 1% rule and 50 % rule, which are easy to do in your head, and can save you the trouble of breaking out the calculator for rental properties that clearly won’t make money. It is helpful to understand two simple concepts for this all to make sense. That means you are not cash flowing, you are paying money out of pocket to own this investment. In many people’s case, this is a negative number. You need to subtract your mortgage from rent, then subtract all other expenses to arrive at your actual cash flow. The mistake most people make is believing that your money left over after paying a mortgage each month is your cash flow. I’m here to make sure you can spot these inflated numbers a mile away. Most people grossly overestimate the cash flow they are actually getting on their rental property.Īt the same time, the people trying to sell you investment properties also have a habit of fudging the numbers on cash flow and return on investment.
