Investment Property Mortgage Calculator
Most calculators stop at your monthly payment. This one goes further — DSCR, cap rate, cash-on-cash return, and true monthly cash flow after vacancy, management, and maintenance, so you can tell if a rental deal actually works before you make an offer.
Reviewed for accuracy: August 2026 · Rate spread and qualifying guidance from Fannie Mae Selling Guide · DSCR benchmarks from current market rate surveys
Property & Financing
Qualifies on your personal income and credit; 75% of rent counts toward qualifying.
Rental Income
Operating Expenses
Monthly Cash Flow
The Three Numbers That Actually Matter
A mortgage payment tells you what you owe. These three tell you whether the deal is any good.
DSCR
Rent ÷ PITI. 1.0 or higher means rent covers the mortgage.
Cap Rate
Net operating income ÷ purchase price, ignoring financing.
Cash-on-Cash Return
Annual cash flow ÷ total cash invested. Your real return on the money you put in.
Conventional vs. DSCR Loans
Two very different underwriting philosophies for the same purchase.
Conventional Investment Loan
- Qualifies on your personal income, credit, and DTI
- 15% down minimum for a single unit, 25% for 2–4 units
- Requires tax returns, W-2s, and full income documentation
- Typically 0.5%–1% higher rate than a primary-residence loan
DSCR Loan
- Qualifies on the property’s rental income, not yours
- No tax returns, W-2s, or personal income documentation
- 20%–25% down typical, DSCR of 1.0+ generally required
- Rate premium of roughly 0.5%–1.5% over conventional, though pricing has grown competitive
Down Payment Requirements by Scenario
Down payment requirements shift based on unit count, loan type, and how strong the deal looks on paper.
| Scenario | Typical Min. Down | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional, 1 unit | 15% | 25%+ needed for the most competitive rates |
| Conventional, 2–4 units | 25% | Multi-unit properties carry stricter LTV limits |
| DSCR loan | 20%–25% | Higher for DSCR under 1.0 or lower credit tiers |
| FHA (owner-occupied multi-unit only) | 3.5% | Only applies if you live in one unit yourself |
| VA (owner-occupied multi-unit only) | 0% | Only applies if you live in one unit yourself |
If you’re planning to live in one unit of a 2–4 unit property, run the FHA or VA path through our FHA or VA calculator instead — those programs only apply when you occupy part of the property yourself.
Why This Calculator Doesn’t Stop at Your Monthly Payment
I’ve used a lot of investment property calculators that do exactly one thing: take a purchase price and a rate, and spit out a mortgage payment. That’s the easy 20% of the math. It tells you nothing about whether the property is actually a good investment, because a mortgage payment on its own doesn’t account for vacancy, doesn’t account for the property manager’s cut, doesn’t account for the roof that’ll need replacing in year twelve, and doesn’t tell you what return you’re actually earning on the cash you put in. This tool runs the full picture, because that’s the version of the question you’re actually asking when you’re deciding whether to make an offer.
DSCR, cap rate, and cash-on-cash return aren’t investor jargon for its own sake, they’re three genuinely different lenses on the same deal. DSCR tells a lender (and you) whether the rent alone covers the debt, which is exactly what DSCR loan underwriting is built around. Cap rate strips financing out entirely and asks how the property performs as an asset, useful for comparing deals with different down payments or loan structures. Cash-on-cash return is the most personal number of the three: it’s your actual return on the actual dollars you wrote a check for, which is usually the number that matters most once you’ve already decided financing terms.
The 75% rule most first-time investors have never heard of
If you’re qualifying for a conventional investment loan using your personal income, lenders don’t count your full expected rent toward your qualifying income, they count 75% of it, per Fannie Mae’s underwriting guidelines. The remaining 25% is held back specifically to account for vacancy, repairs, and management costs, whether or not you actually plan to hire a property manager. This single detail catches a lot of first-time investors off guard when their expected debt-to-income math doesn’t match what a lender actually approves them for.
Why reserves matter as much as your down payment
Beyond your down payment and closing costs, most lenders want to see 6 months of PITI sitting in reserve for each financed investment property you own, money you’re not spending, just proving you have. On a property with a $2,200 monthly PITI payment, that’s roughly $13,200 in addition to whatever you’re putting down at closing. It’s a detail that trips up buyers who’ve saved exactly enough for a down payment and assumed that was the whole number.
Frequently Asked Questions
Investment property rates typically run 0.5 to 1 percentage point higher than a comparable primary-residence rate, sometimes more for lower credit scores or higher leverage. DSCR loans carry a further premium of roughly 0.5 to 1.5 points above conventional rates, though DSCR pricing has become increasingly competitive with conventional investment pricing in 2026.
Conventional financing typically requires at least 15% down for a single-unit rental and 25% for a 2 to 4-unit property. DSCR loans generally require 20% to 25% down. Putting down 25% or more, keeping loan-to-value at 75% or below, is widely considered the threshold for the most competitive available rates.
DSCR stands for Debt Service Coverage Ratio, calculated as gross monthly rent divided by the property’s total monthly mortgage payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and HOA). A DSCR of 1.0 means rent exactly covers the payment. Most lenders want at least 1.0, and a ratio of 1.25 or higher typically earns better pricing. DSCR loans qualify the property’s cash flow rather than the borrower’s personal income, skipping tax returns and W-2s entirely.
Under Fannie Mae guidelines, lenders typically count 75% of the property’s gross rental income toward your qualifying income on a conventional loan, with the remaining 25% held back to account for vacancy, repairs, and management costs.
Most lenders require 6 months of PITI in liquid reserves for each financed investment property, on top of your down payment and closing costs. On a property with a $2,000 monthly PITI payment, that’s roughly $12,000 held in reserve beyond the money used to close.
There’s no universal number since it depends heavily on market and property type, but many investors look for a cap rate of 5% to 10% and a cash-on-cash return of 8% or higher as reasonable benchmarks, with higher numbers generally reflecting either a better deal or a higher-risk market.
Yes, and it’s one of the main reasons self-employed investors use DSCR loans. Since qualification is based on the property’s rental income rather than your personal tax returns, DSCR loans skip the income documentation that often complicates self-employed borrowers’ conventional loan applications.
It can be, if your down payment is under 20% on a conventional investment loan. Since most investment loans require at least 15% to 20% down, PMI on investment properties is less common than on primary residences but still applies below that 20% equity threshold, often at a higher rate than owner-occupied PMI.
Fannie Mae caps a single borrower at 10 financed properties total under conventional guidelines. DSCR and portfolio lenders often allow more, since they’re evaluating each property on its own cash flow rather than your aggregate personal debt-to-income ratio.
Property taxes, insurance, property management, maintenance and repairs, HOA dues, and vacancy loss all count as operating expenses for net operating income and cap rate purposes. Your mortgage principal and interest are deliberately excluded, since cap rate is meant to measure the property’s performance independent of financing.
It’s a trade-off between time and cash flow. Property management typically costs 8% to 10% of collected rent, which directly reduces your monthly cash flow and cash-on-cash return, but self-managing requires your own time for tenant screening, maintenance coordination, and rent collection, which becomes harder to sustain as you scale beyond one or two properties.
Yes, generally. Because lenders already view investment properties as higher risk, the rate difference between a strong credit score (740+) and a weaker one (620s) tends to be wider on investment financing than on comparable primary-residence loans, making credit optimization especially valuable before applying.
Related Mortgage Calculators
- Mortgage Calculators Hub — browse every state-specific and loan-program calculator on DexoCalc, including FHA, VA, USDA, and PMI tools alongside this investment property calculator.
- Main Mortgage Calculator — useful for modeling a primary-residence purchase, including house-hacking scenarios where you’ll live in one unit.
- 30 Year Mortgage Calculator — run a detailed total-interest and amortization breakdown on your investment property’s 30-year term.
- Mortgage Calculator With PMI — if you’re putting down less than 20%, model your exact PMI cost and cancellation timeline.
- Mortgage Calculator With Extra Payments — see how extra principal payments toward your rental’s mortgage shorten the payoff and boost long-term cash flow.