Will it cash flow, or just feel like it will?
Every line a lender looks at — vacancy, taxes, the reserve you'll wish you'd kept — against this week's rate and the county's own figures for the house you're circling.
30-yr fixed this week 6.76% · investor loans about half a point above
Live via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · refreshed every six hours
Rate starts at this week's 6.76% plus 0.5 for an investor loan. Taxes at 1.55% of price, insurance $1,500/yr, 8% maintenance reserve, 10% management unless you self-manage, 2.5% closing, $4,000 make-ready. Give an address and the county's assessed value and taxes replace the estimates.
- Rent
- $1,950
- Vacancy5% — about 3 weeks empty a year
- −$98
- Property tax1.55% of price
- −$304
- Insurancelandlord policy
- −$125
- Maintenance reserve8% of rent
- −$156
- Management10% of rent
- −$195
- Mortgage (P&I)$176,250 at 7.26%
- −$1,204
- Cash in at closing
- $68,625
You'd be paying $131 a month to own it, and a 0.89 debt-cover means most lenders won't finance it as a rental at all.
It needs $2,120 a month to break even. If that isn't the rent for this street, this isn't the property — and a metro with 1,500 permits a month has others.
The listing shows you the price. These show you the property.
- Cash-on-cash
What the money you put in earns, per year.
Cash flow after every cost and the mortgage, divided by down payment plus closing plus make-ready. Under 5% you're buying a savings account with a roof. Over 8% in this metro, look for what you've missed.
- DSCR
Whether a lender will touch it.
Net operating income divided by the mortgage payment. Most investor lenders want 1.20 or better; at 1.00 the rent just covers the note and nothing else. This is the number that decides financing, not the price.
- Break-even rent
The rent at which you make nothing.
If the street's real rents are below it, the deal isn't a deal — no matter how good the photos are. It's the fastest way to tell an investment from a wish.
Assumptions you can see beat assumptions you can't.
- Rate
- Freddie Mac's weekly survey via the St. Louis Fed, plus half a point for an investor loan. Adjustable on the page.
- Taxes
- An effective Polk County rate on the price until you give an address; then the county's own assessed value and levy.
- Rent
- Yours to set — the page won't guess a street's rent for you. Break-even rent tells you what it has to be.
- Reserves
- 5% vacancy, 8% maintenance, 10% management. Every one of them is what a lender's underwriter will assume, whether you do or not.
- Parcel
- Assessed value, year built, lot, last recorded sale — Polk County Assessor, for the address you give.
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Three people, one ledger, no cold starts.
One who works with investors and will tell you the rent on that street, not the rent you hoped.
Investor-loan terms, DSCR-based when it helps, pre-approval before you tour.
If you'd rather not take the 2 a.m. call. They see the reserve line before they quote.