Cash Buyer ROI Calculator

ROI (return on investment) is the percentage return on the cash you actually invested. For a fix-and-flip, ROI = net profit / total cash invested. For a buy-and-hold rental, the equivalent metric is cash-on-cash return — annual cash flow divided by total cash invested.

Holding costs are the ongoing expenses you pay while owning the property between purchase and resale (or first rent). Property taxes, insurance, utilities, HOA dues, and any debt service if you used hard money. Underestimating holding costs is one of the most common ways flip projections go wrong.

Standard flip selling costs are 6-9% of sale price: roughly 5-6% in agent commissions plus 1-3% for closing costs (title, escrow, transfer taxes, prorations). Some flippers list their own properties without an agent — that saves the buyer-agent commission but rarely the full listing-agent commission.

Most buy-and-hold investors target 8-12% cash-on-cash for a property to be considered a strong cash-flowing rental. Below 6% is generally considered weak unless the property has strong appreciation potential. Above 14% is exceptional and usually means either undervalued purchase or a higher-risk market.

A common rule of thumb is 50% of gross rent goes to expenses on a fully-stabilized rental — that includes property management (8-10%), maintenance reserve (5-10%), vacancy reserve (5-8%), insurance, taxes, and capital expenditure reserves. We use slightly lower defaults because investors often self-manage their first few rentals.

Tax effects (depreciation, capital gains, 1031 exchanges) — these matter a lot but vary by individual situation, talk to a CPA. Also: appreciation (rental properties), refi proceeds (BRRRR strategy), syndication splits, lender fees and points beyond what you enter, and property-specific risk factors like flood zones or major systems near end of life.