What would you put at the top of the list for essential things that every real estate investor needs? Education? Money? Well, I’d say that the #1 thing a real estate investor needs is a rental property calculator.
Education- a rental property calculator can provide that in a way. Money- there are ways to buy a house with no money for real estate investing. Any other answer you can come up with, you’ll find that the rental property calculator trumps them all! Let’s dive into what a rental property calculator is, what it does, and why every real estate investor needs one.
What is a Rental Property Calculator?
A rental property calculator is a digital real estate investment tool that can help you find and choose investment properties. It does this by completing every type of real estate investment analysis for you. All a real estate investor has to do is to add in basic information: investment property search criteria (real estate market, preferred size, type, etc.) and budget/ financing method. Then, the investment calculator will find investment property from all over the chosen real estate market that matches the criteria. A real estate investor compares investment properties for their potential return on investment and then chooses one to invest in.
To learn more about our rental property calculator, click here.
Worried about how to invest in real estate? What about where to invest in real estate? With a rental property calculator, you don’t have to worry anymore.
Keep in Mind: Not all rental property calculators are created equally. What is described in this blog will be found with only the best rental property calculator.
Related: What are The Advantages of Real Estate Investment Analysis?
What Does a Rental Property Calculator Do?
In general, we know a rental property calculator can help you find investment property. But what exactly does it do to achieve this?
Real Estate Market Analysis
Choosing Where to Invest in Real Estate
A rental property calculator can perform one of the essential parts of real estate market analysis: finding the most profitable real estate markets. We don’t have to tell you how important location is to real estate investing. Choose the wrong real estate market and you can end up with a negative cash flow property that you can’t manage to get off your hands.
The best rental property calculator will show you key metrics for determining if a real estate market is the best place for where to invest in real estate. These metrics include cash on cash return, cap rate, rental income, and Airbnb occupancy rate. A real estate investor can also take a look at the median house price to know if the income properties will be affordable or not.
The best part? You can compare hundreds of real estate markets across different cities in the US housing market in a few minutes. Just take a look at the numbers, compare, and choose where to invest in real estate. With a basic understanding of real estate investing, choosing the most profitable locations that promise the best return on investment is easy with this real estate investment tool.
To find investment property in your city and neighborhood of choice, click here.
Neighborhood Analysis
Choosing the city is only half the battle when attempting to find investment property; your investment property search requires you look for the best neighborhood as well. The best rental property calculator will also perform neighborhood analysis. This narrows down your investment property search to a specific location in the best real estate market.
How? In the same way an investment calculator presents the best real estate market, it presents the best neighborhood. Neighborhood analysis returns the median house price, cash on cash return, rental income and Airbnb occupancy rate. In a few seconds, neighborhood analysis is complete and a real estate investor knows exactly where to invest in real estate for success.
Find Out: How to Do a Neighborhood Analysis in Real Estate
Determining the Value of Income Properties
Finding rental comps to determine the value of income properties can take time. With the best rental property calculator, as soon as a real estate investor clicks on an investment property of interest, real estate comps are immediately presented. This saves a real estate investor from performing this part of real estate market analysis only to find the price isn’t right. With this real estate investment tool, you can move on immediately and continue your investment property search.
Investment Property Analysis
It’s true that certain parts of investment property analysis need to be performed by the real estate investor and/or professionals like the home inspection. What a rental property calculator can help you with here is the oh-so-many calculations of investment property analysis. Return on investment metrics for a real estate market and neighborhood may be ideal, but a real estate investor cannot invest in property that doesn’t promise the same returns. Again, the best rental property calculator will return the property price, cash flow, cash on cash return, cap rate, rental income, and occupancy rate.
The best rental property calculator will also allow a real estate investor to track all the rental property expenses in one place to see how they affect such return on investment metrics.
Real Estate Investment Strategy
Something only the best rental property calculator will do is let a real estate investor know what the best real estate investment strategy is for a particular property. Based on all of the information mentioned above, the tool will show whether a property is best suited for an Airbnb investment strategy or a traditional investment strategy.
Related: Airbnb Profit Calculator: The Ultimate Real Estate Investment Tool
How Does a Rental Property Calculator Do All of This?
An investment calculator uses traditional real estate analytics. This data consists of past statistics of a real estate market. It can help a real estate investor review what has happened and why it happened in that particular real estate market. For example, a real estate investor could see how income properties fared in terms of the cash on cash return, cap rate, rental income, etc. in the past few years. Then, it can be determined what elements lead to this success or failure.
The best rental property calculator uses both traditional real estate analytics and predictive analytics. Predictive analytics takes past data and, using algorithms, predicts how investment properties will do in the future. Both traditional and predictive analytics are necessary for successful real estate investing. You’re investing in these income properties for the future; you want to know why they’ve performed a certain way in the past and how they will perform in the future.
Why Does Every Real Estate Investor Need a Rental Property Calculator?
If knowing what an investment calculator does hasn’t quite convinced you that every real estate investor needs one, then here are a few reasons:
A Rental Property Calculator Can Teach You about Real Estate Investing
Not interested in taking real estate classes or even picking up a real estate investment book? Well, a rental property calculator can help a beginner real estate investor get started in real estate investing. As we’ve seen, the best rental property calculator will show a real estate investor where to invest in real estate, how to find investment property, and what makes for the best real estate investments. While your real estate education can’t stop there, an investment calculator can provide you with the basics. From there, you’ll have an investment property on your hands to help you learn the rest from experience.
A Rental Property Calculator Can Save You Time
You may not be a beginner to real estate investing, but you still need a rental property calculator. How long did it take you to find your last investment property? My guess is a couple of months. With an investment calculator, it can take 15 minutes to locate a real estate market and find investment property. We all know buying an investment property can take some time (approval for financing, negotiation, closing on the sale) so cut down the overall time of real estate investing by reducing the investment property search to a few minutes with an investment calculator.
A Rental Property Calculator Will Keep You Organized
If you plan on buying multiple investment properties or even if it’s your first time buying an investment property, you need to be organized. The most successful real estate investors are. Think of all of the data on the different real estate markets you’ll need to be able to choose one. What about all of the calculations to find the best real estate investments? Where would you keep all of this data? In files and files of spreadsheets (be they digital or not)? Instead, organize all the data in one place with one real estate investment tool.
A Rental Property Calculator Can Save You Money
Real estate agents are invaluable but they do put a value on their services. A return on investment can take a hit from the commission of a real estate agent when selling investment property. When buying an investment property, it’ll be all the more expensive. An investment calculator can save you money in this way.
Another way this real estate investment tool saves you money is by allowing you to find the best real estate investments within your budget that can still bring a good return on investment. A real estate investor won’t be forced to spend too much or end up losing money because all the available options will be in reach, allowing for smarter real estate investment decisions.
To learn more about how we will help you make faster and smarter real estate investment decisions, click here.
Where Can You Find the Best Rental Property Calculator?
There’s really only one rental property calculator out there that can be described as the best: Mashvisor’s investment calculator. On top of all the attributes we’ve mentioned, Mashvisor saves a real estate investor even more time if he/she uses the Property Finder.
Remember how we said it was the job of the real estate investor to compare investment properties based on the return on investment metrics and choose the best one? Well, with the Property Finder, the best income properties are returned right away based on your investment property search criteria. These are the ones with the highest return on investment potential. Now, all a real estate investor is left to do is to choose the best among the best!
As a new real estate investor, you can’t go wrong with a rental property calculator. As an experienced one, you may find better real estate investing opportunities quickly and easily with this real estate investment tool. Either way, there is no arguing the benefit of such a tool in real estate investing.
To start your 14-day free trial with Mashvisor and subscribe to our services with a 20% discount after, click here.
