Free Excel Template for Real Estate Investment
What this real estate investment template covers
This is a pre-purchase underwriting tool: you plug in purchase price, closing costs, repair budget, financing terms, gross rent, vacancy, and operating expenses for up to 3 properties, laid out in columns side by side.
From those inputs it calculates loan amount, total cash invested, monthly principal and interest, effective rent after vacancy, total operating expenses, annual NOI, cap rate, monthly cash flow after debt service, and cash-on-cash return — for each property.
It's built for comparing candidate deals before you make an offer, not for tracking an owned property's ongoing income and expenses month to month.
How to use the NOI, cap rate and cash-on-cash calculator
NOI (net operating income) is your effective rent after vacancy, minus operating expenses, annualized — the standard measure of what a property earns before financing. Cap rate divides that NOI by purchase price plus initial repairs, giving you a rate of return independent of how you finance the deal.
Cash-on-cash return divides your annual cash flow after debt service by your total cash invested (down payment, closing costs, and repairs) — the return that actually reflects your financing, which is what most buyers use to compare deals against their financing constraints.
Monthly principal and interest is calculated with a standard loan payment formula from your rate, term, and loan amount, so cash flow after debt service reflects your actual mortgage payment, not a rough estimate.
Comparing up to 3 properties before you make an offer
The three property columns share the exact same set of inputs and formulas, so you can enter Property A, B, and C's numbers and read the returns across from each other row by row — no separate copies of the sheet to keep in sync.
This side-by-side layout is the core of the tool: it's built to help you rank 2-3 real deals you're actively considering, not to model dozens of properties in a portfolio.
If a property clears your minimum cap rate or cash-on-cash threshold but a competing property doesn't, that comparison is immediate — you're not toggling between separate files.
What's different from a rental P&L or CMA template
This template calculates NOI, cap rate, monthly cash flow, and cash-on-cash return for deals you're evaluating before purchase. It does not calculate an IRR and does not project returns across multiple years of ownership — it's a single-period underwriting snapshot, not a multi-year pro forma.
It's also not a rental property profit and loss tracker for a property you already own (that's a different workflow: recording actual monthly income and expenses over time), and it's not a comparative market analysis tool for pricing a listing based on comparable sales.
Keeping this template strictly in the pre-purchase underwriting lane means the numbers you calculate here — cap rate, cash-on-cash — are exactly what you'd use to decide whether to make an offer, not a running record of a property you already own.
How to use it
- Enter purchase price, closing costs, repair budget, and financing terms for up to 3 candidate properties.
- Enter gross monthly rent, vacancy %, and operating expenses for each property.
- Review NOI, cap rate, monthly cash flow after debt service, and cash-on-cash return, calculated side by side.
- Compare the three columns to decide which deal, if any, is worth pursuing.
Download the free Free Excel Template for Real Estate Investment
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Real Estate Investor Pack
Once you've underwritten a deal here, the paid Real Estate Investor Pack ($39) tracks the property after you buy it — rental P&L with live cash-on-cash and DSCR, an amortization schedule, and CMA comps in one file.
See the full versionFrequently asked questions
Can I use this real estate investment template in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the downloaded file to Google Drive, then open it and choose File > Save as Google Sheets. All the calculations keep working.
Is this template really free?
Yes. You give an email address to download it, and then it's yours to use with no further cost.
Does it calculate IRR?
No. It calculates NOI, cap rate, monthly cash flow after debt service, and cash-on-cash return for a single period — it does not project or calculate an internal rate of return.
Does it project returns over multiple years of ownership?
No, it's a single-period underwriting snapshot based on your current assumptions, not a multi-year projection or pro forma.
How many properties can I compare?
Up to 3 properties side by side in the same sheet, which is the layout the file is built around.
What's the usage license?
Personal use or use within one business. It's not meant to be resold or redistributed as a template product.