Rental Investment Break-Even, Counting the Sale
See the earliest month rental cash and a hypothetical sale pay back your down payment and acquisition costs, plus the net outcome for your period.
What This Calculator Does
Should I rent or sell? Enter your own numbers and see the month when collected rent and a hypothetical sale together repay the cash you started with. Acquisition costs you can't get back go in, along with initial repairs. If the deal needs financing, add a theoretical loan; otherwise leave it out. The rent you really collect, operating costs, and your own value and selling assumptions go in too. Recovery assumes you sell, and the net at your selected month isn't the same as the first month recovery shows. No income tax is subtracted anywhere.
Who Is This For
If you're weighing one specific purchase and a later sale, whether as a rental buyer, an owner or a real estate pro, this fits. Put in the cash you actually start with and your full operating estimates. A modeled gain can come from the sale, so it doesn't mean rent alone paid you back. It also isn't an approval, a forecast of the market or a promised return.
How It Works
Enter the purchase price, your down payment and the cash the purchase takes. If you buy with cash, enter the full price as the down payment and skip the rate and the term. Borrowing instead takes a fixed note rate and a term. Add the monthly rent you collect and the monthly operating costs. Give the annual value change as + or −, and selling costs as a percent. The period runs 1–600 whole months. Then press Calculate. After that, compare the cash you put up front, the rent flow, and what a sale leaves once the loan is paid. The first break-even month and the period's gain or loss sit beside them.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does this tool say I've broken even?
Only when a sale is counted along with rent. The calculator adds each month's rent, takes off operating costs and any loan payment, then adds what a sale would put in your hand after selling costs and loan payoff. Once that total reaches your down payment plus the nonrefundable purchase cash, you've broken even. Zero or higher at a month-end is the test, and the first such month is the point. Hitting exactly zero is not a profit. Your chosen period's gain or loss is displayed apart from the status. Taxes on income, discounting and loan eligibility never enter the math.
Why do acquisition costs push recovery later?
Acquisition costs push it later, since they're added once to your starting cash. Picture buying for $300,000 cash with value flat and 6% selling costs. At $1,500 a month after operating costs and no acquisition costs, the $18,000 of selling cost is covered in month 12. Now add $12,000 of nonrefundable acquisition cash. Recovery slides to month 20, and by month 24 the net gain is $6,000. The numbers are illustrations, not quotes of any fee. Credited deposits, financed fees, recoverable reserves and double-counted costs don't belong in the acquisition figure.
Is break-even possible in the first year?
Yes. Start with $500,000 cash, a value that stays flat, 6% selling costs and 0 acquisition costs. With $5,000 of rent collected each month and 0 operating costs, the $30,000 of selling cost is covered in month 6. At month 6 the net is 0, and 0 is not a profit. At month 12 it reaches $30,000. Because the calculator checks month by month, no result is labeled as exactly a year. Both the rent and the costs here are assumptions you type in.
Could monthly cash flow be negative while a sale still pays off?
Yes, both can hold at once. Take a hypothetical house that cost $300,000, with $60,000 down and $240,000 borrowed at 0% over 10 years. The payment comes to $2,000. Rent brings in $2,000 while operating costs take $1,000, and the shortfall is $1,000 a month, shown as −$1,000 of rental cash, or −$6,000 after 6 months. Value stays flat and acquisition and selling costs are 0. A sale then leaves $72,000 once the $228,000 still owed is paid. Take $72,000, subtract the $60,000 you put in, count the −$6,000, and the net is $6,000. Owning still takes cash to fund. The 0% rate is only there to check the math. It isn't an offer of a loan.
Does anything change when I own the property past the loan's payoff?
No extra payments get charged. Say you bought for $300,000 with $60,000 down and $10,000 of acquisition cash, using a 0% 10-year loan. Rent is $3,000, operating costs run $1,000, value stays flat and selling costs are 6%. Hold for 144 months, and you pay the loan only 120 times, $2,000 each, which totals $240,000. Nothing is owed at sale: 0 debt. The modeled net gain is $260,000. Rent and operating costs keep going, but the 24 months after payoff carry no loan payments.
Does it stop when my period ends, and is month zero ever tested?
Neither. Results come from month-ends only, starting with month 1 and stopping at the whole-month count you selected; month zero is never a starting point, and nothing is interpolated between samples. Say cash would be covered at month 20, but you selected 12 months. The period then ends with no recovery. Now take flat value with zero debt, rent and expenses, and no purchase or sale costs. Month 1 is simply the first exact-equality sample, and a result of zero there isn't profit. Should your real assumptions or conditions change, the projected recovery may no longer hold.
Can I test a falling price, or a sale that nets less than zero?
Yes, both. Set the annual value change anywhere from −15% to 15%, where 0 is allowed, and it compounds monthly. A sample: you pay $300,000 cash with 0 purchase costs, value slides −10% a year, selling costs are 6%, and the property nets $1,500 a month after operating costs. At month 24 it's worth $243,000, and the net is −$35,580. With a loan, sale cash after payoff can turn negative too. When it does, you pay in the shortfall, and it is never forgiven. Read each as a what-if case, not a price prediction.
Is every number precise, and what stays outside the model?
Exact, but not complete. The calculator works out the loan payment and value path without rounding, which is why they can differ from your lender's statement. Both the status and the break-even month come from the unrounded gain; a displayed $0 may therefore hide a tiny gain or loss. A rounding plug makes the shown net gain match: what a sale brings, plus the rental flow, less the cash you put in up front. It is not a fee. Income and capital-gains taxes are outside the model, and so are NPV and IRR. Inflation and rent growth are not modeled, nor is a lender's review or any guarantee. The note rate you enter is also not the APR.