Underwrite a rental in seconds
Rental Property Analyzer
Underwrite a North Texas long-term rental in seconds. Pick a city and the price, rent, property-tax rate, insurance, and appreciation all load from live local data - then see cap rate, cash-on-cash, cash flow, DSCR, and how your deal stacks up against the median rental in that city.
Acquisition
Plano effective property tax: 1.71%
Finance the purchase with a down payment and a mortgage.
Pre-fills from city median; use your actual contract price
Operations
Pre-fills from city median; verify with comps
Pre-fills from city effective rate
Pre-fills at ~0.9%/yr of value - DFW is a hail market
Plano: ~6.0%/yr over the last 10 years (pre-filled). Currently down 5.1% year-over-year.
Pre-fills from the selected city. Drives the hold projection.
How long you plan to keep it, for the projection below.
Monthly cash flow
-$1,679
above $0
Cash-on-cash
-14.70%
6% or better
Cap rate (after reserves)
2.20%
5% or better
DSCR
0.74
1.20 or better
Plano rental market
City guide →The median-value home at median rent, under your financing and reserve assumptions. It runs thin in pricier suburbs - those are appreciation plays; cash-flow deals live below the median or in value markets.
Single-family rents in Plano are up about 2.5% year-over-year. Plano is down 5.1% year-over-year right now.
Your property is priced right around the Plano median value, and its cap rate is in line with the median deal here (~2.20%).
Cash flow sensitivity (per month)
| RentRate | 6.30% | 7.30% | 8.30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $2,550 | -$1,574 | -$1,827 | -$2,091 |
| $2,750 | -$1,426 | -$1,679 | -$1,943 |
| $2,950 | -$1,278 | -$1,531 | -$1,795 |
5-year hold projection
| Year | Rent/mo | Cash flow/yr | Cumulative | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,750 | -$20,152 | -$20,152 | $130,549 |
| 2 | $2,819 | -$20,336 | -$40,488 | $164,929 |
| 3 | $2,889 | -$20,553 | -$61,041 | $201,434 |
| 4 | $2,961 | -$20,805 | -$81,846 | $240,193 |
| 5 | $3,035 | -$21,095 | -$102,941 | $281,349 |
Rent grows at 2.5%/yr and value at 6.0%/yr. Maintenance, management, capex and vacancy scale with rent; property tax scales with value, which is why cash flow grows more slowly than rent in Texas. Equity is value minus loan balance, before selling costs.
Capital required
Monthly P&L
Total return, year 1
Quick screens
Note:
The 4-7% cap rates investors target are deals they select - below-median homes, value-add, or lower-cost cities - not the median-value house at median rent, which rarely cash-flows in North Texas’s pricier suburbs once property tax, insurance and reserves are all charged. Effective tax rates here run from about 1.7% in the Collin County suburbs to about 2.5% in Dallas County, and financing shown uses July 2026 investor-rate benchmarks. Mali helps you find the deals that actually pencil and stress-test them against rent comps and HOA rules before you offer.
Frequently asked
What’s a good cap rate for a North Texas SFR?
Most North Texas single-family rentals underwrite to 4–7% cap rate today. Anything above 6% is strong for a Class A or B property in Plano, Frisco, or Allen. Tertiary markets (Garland, Princeton, Lavon) can push 7–9% but with more turnover and operational lift.
What’s a good cash-on-cash return?
In the current rate environment, a financed long-term rental hitting 5–8% cash-on-cash is healthy. Below 4% means you’re betting heavily on appreciation. Above 10% in DFW usually means short-term rental, value-add, or a deal that needs scrutinizing.
Why does the calculator default to 8% maintenance and 5% CapEx?
These are realistic reserves for North Texas SFRs, where roof replacements, HVAC, and water heaters add up over a 10–15 year hold. Skipping reserves makes a deal look great on paper and disappointing in practice.
What’s DSCR and why does it matter?
Debt Service Coverage Ratio, and we compute it the way a DSCR lender does: gross scheduled rent ÷ PITIA (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and HOA dues). DSCR loans let an investor qualify on the property instead of their personal income, and most require 1.20+ to fund. Above 1.5 is comfortable; below 1.0 means the rent doesn’t cover the property’s own carrying cost. Note this is not the commercial NOI ÷ debt-service version of the ratio - that one nets out vacancy, maintenance, management and capex, so it reads much lower on the same deal. Both are real, but the 1.20 bar is defined on the lender’s version, so that’s the one we show next to it. Your reserves still matter: they drive the cash flow and cap rate above, they just aren’t in this ratio.
Where do the per-city numbers come from?
Pick a North Texas city and the analyzer loads that market’s median single-family value, median rent, effective property-tax rate, a value-based insurance estimate (DFW is a hail market, so ~0.9%/yr), and its 10-year appreciation trend. The 'City rental market' panel then shows the gross rent yield and a median-deal cap rate - what a typical house in that city pencils to under the exact financing and operating assumptions you’ve set - so your own deal is measured against a real local benchmark, not a national rule of thumb. These figures are 2026 estimates; always confirm with live comps before you offer.
Why is total return higher than cash-on-cash?
Cash-on-cash only counts the cash flow you pocket. Total return adds the two other ways a leveraged rental builds wealth: the loan principal your tenant retires each year, and appreciation on the whole property value (not just your down payment). On a financed North Texas rental, principal paydown and even modest 3-4% appreciation often dwarf year-one cash flow, which is why a deal with thin cash-on-cash can still be a strong total-return investment. Cash flow is what keeps you solvent through vacancies; total return is what you actually earn.
Prefer to reach out directly? Email Mali or call (972) 408-6939.