The problem: You want to buy rental property, but the numbers don’t add up (yet)

Most people I talk to want to invest in real estate. They’ve read Rich Dad Poor Dad. They know rental properties build wealth. They understand that net worth > income is the path to financial freedom.

But when it comes time to analyze an actual deal? They open a blank spreadsheet and freeze. How do I calculate cash flow? What’s a good cap rate? Am I accounting for everything?

We had the same problem.

Our story: From W-2 income to building a rental portfolio

Reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad was the “aha moment” for us. The book flipped our perspective from chasing higher salaries to building assets that generate passive income. We started looking at rental properties—but quickly realized we needed better tools than basic spreadsheets.

Most real estate investment calculators online were either too simple (just a mortgage payment calculator) or too complex (underwriting software built for institutional investors). We needed something in between: a rental property calculator that handled the real math—property taxes, insurance, cap rates, loan terms, cash-on-cash return—but was simple enough to use on every deal.

So we built one. It started as a Google Sheet. Over time, we refined it into what we now call the “Dave Sheet” (named after my friend Dave Joslin, who helped develop it).

What it does: Real estate analysis for buy-and-hold investors

The Dave Sheet is a rental property calculator built for operators—people who actually buy and hold real estate, not just analyze it on paper.

Here’s what it calculates:

• Cash flow: Monthly rental income minus all expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy)
• Cap rate: Net operating income divided by purchase price (the standard real estate ROI metric)
• Cash-on-cash return: Annual cash flow divided by your actual cash invested
• Loan scenarios: Compare 15-year vs 30-year mortgages, different down payments, interest rate sensitivity
• Long-term projections: See how rent increases and loan paydown affect your returns over 10, 20, 30 years

It’s designed for rental property investing whether you’re analyzing single-family, multi-family, or small commercial properties.

Why we’re sharing it

We use this rental property analysis calculator on every deal we evaluate. It’s helped us acquire multiple properties and avoid bad deals that looked good at first glance.

Here’s the thing: most aspiring real estate investors don’t need a $500/month underwriting software subscription. They need a solid investment property calculator that does the math right and helps them make confident decisions.

So we built it—and now we’re sharing it.

Try the calculator

We’ve turned the Dave Sheet into an interactive rental property calculator you can use right in your browser. No spreadsheet downloads, no formulas to break—just plug in your deal numbers and see the results instantly.

The calculator is pre-loaded with example numbers so you can see how everything flows. Update the purchase price, down payment, rental income, and expenses to analyze your deal in real time.

What makes this different from other real estate calculators

1. Built by operators: We run this on our own deals, not just academic case studies
2. Buy-and-hold focus: Optimized for rental property analysis (we’ll be adding flip analysis soon)
3. Comprehensive but simple: Captures all the key metrics (cash flow, cap rate, ROI) without bloat
4. Interactive: No spreadsheet downloads, works instantly in your browser
5. Real numbers: Includes realistic expense assumptions (maintenance, vacancy, capex) that beginners often miss

If you’re learning how to analyze rental property or just want a faster way to run numbers on potential deals, this is the tool we wish we had when we started.

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Ready to analyze your next rental property? Use the calculator → and start underwriting deals like a pro.