Why this spreadsheet is un-gated
Search for “rental property spreadsheet” and nearly every result makes you trade your email address for an Excel file — then drips marketing at you for months. We'd rather you just have the tool. If the spreadsheet is genuinely useful, some of you will eventually want the faster version (type an address, get the same analysis in 60 seconds), and the rest of you got a good spreadsheet for free. That's the whole model.
It's also not a teaser. The workbook is a transparent, formula-driven buy-and-hold screen with its limits disclosed in-file. The web analyzer adds broader inputs and workflows; it does not make this workbook's model more complete than it is.
What's in each tab
Tab 1 — Deal Analyzer
The core underwrite on one screen. You edit the inputs — purchase price, down payment, interest rate, loan term, monthly rent, and the full expense set (property tax, insurance, vacancy, management, maintenance, CapEx, HOA, utilities) — and live formulas compute:
- Monthly and annual cash flow — rent minus every operating expense minus the mortgage payment (P&I via the standard PMT formula), including PMI when the down payment is under 20%.
- NOI and cap rate — the unleveraged view of the property, for comparing deals regardless of financing.
- Cash-on-cash return — annual cash flow against the actual cash you bring (down payment plus closing costs).
- DSCR — the coverage ratio lenders underwrite to for financed deals. An all-cash purchase renders N/A — no debt service instead of a false zero.
The defaults are honest, not optimistic: 5% vacancy, 8% management, 10% maintenance, and a 5% CapEx reserve — the same starting assumptions the TrueCap analyzer uses. Zero them out if you must, but know that's the underwrite you're changing, not the formula.
Tab 2 — 10-Year Projection
Year-by-year rent, operating expenses, NOI, debt service, and cumulative cash flow, with rent and expenses each compounding at an editable growth rate (2.5% per year by default) against a fixed mortgage payment. It answers the question a single-month snapshot can't: does this deal get better or worse as it ages?
Tab 3 — Quick Reference
Plain-English definitions and “what's a good number” benchmarks for every metric in the workbook — cap rate, cash-on-cash, DSCR, NOI, the 1% rule, and each expense reserve — plus the exact bands TrueCap's Buy Box classifier uses to group modeled results as Strong, Solid, Mixed, Marginal, or Negative. It's the tab to hand someone who asks “wait, what's DSCR?”
A worked example
The spreadsheet ships pre-filled with the same example deal we underwrite in the TrueCap analyzer: a $250,000 single-family rental at $2,400/mo rent, bought with 20% down at 6.75% on a 30-year loan. With honest reserves, that deal produces roughly $97/mo of cash flow — not the $770/mo you'd get by skipping vacancy, management, maintenance, and CapEx the way many listings do. The same workbook shows the split lenders care about: about $18,200 of NOI, a 7.3% cap rate, and a DSCR of 1.17 — positive cash flow, but below the ≥1.25 most lenders want. That's exactly the kind of nuance a one-number napkin analysis hides, and exactly what the spreadsheet surfaces by default.
The conventions, stated plainly
Free templates disagree wildly on where the CapEx reserve belongs, and the disagreement quietly changes your DSCR. This workbook follows the lender-standard convention — the same one used across TrueCap and documented in our methodology:
- NOI and DSCR exclude the CapEx reserve — it's a below-the-line return-of-capital reserve, not an operating expense.
- Cash flow includes the CapEx reserve — the roof fund is real money leaving your account every month.
- PMI applies on financed deals under 20% down and reduces cash flow, but it is not part of the debt service used for DSCR.
Every cell that embodies one of these choices says so in its label, so you never have to reverse-engineer the formula bar to know what you're looking at.
Or skip the spreadsheet — type an address instead
Here's the honest trade-off. A spreadsheet gives you total control, works offline, and produces a file you can email to a lender. What it can't do is fill itself in: you still hunt down market rent, the county tax rate, and current interest rates for every deal, and you maintain a copy per property.
The TrueCap analyzer starts where the spreadsheet ends: type an address and it can pre-fill editable HUD area rent and the FRED owner-occupied rate benchmark. Enter a local property-tax bill or reviewed rate manually; then it runs the same math and adds the parts a spreadsheet makes painful — PMI drop-off modeling, 10-year projections with principal paydown and appreciation, downside sensitivity, Offer Ceiling, side-by-side deal comparison, and Buy Box fit and a Deal score. It's free to start, and because the conventions match, your spreadsheet numbers carry over exactly. For the longer version of this comparison, see TrueCap vs. Excel.
Frequently asked questions
Is the spreadsheet really free — no email required?+
Yes. The download button links straight to the .xlsx file. There's no email form, no signup, no trial, and nothing inside the file expires or locks. It's a plain Excel workbook you keep forever, share with partners, and edit however you like.
Does it work in Google Sheets?+
Yes. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets (or in Sheets use File → Import → Upload). Every formula in the workbook — PMT for the mortgage payment, plus plain arithmetic for NOI, cap rate, cash-on-cash, and DSCR — is standard and converts cleanly. It also opens in Apple Numbers and LibreOffice.
What's actually in the spreadsheet?+
Three tabs. Deal Analyzer: type price, rent, financing, and expense assumptions and get monthly cash flow, NOI, cap rate, cash-on-cash return, and DSCR from live formulas; all-cash DSCR displays 'N/A — no debt service.' 10-Year Projection: rent and expenses compound at editable growth rates against a fixed mortgage payment. Quick Reference: definitions and screening benchmarks for every metric, plus the bands TrueCap uses for Buy Box fit.
Why do NOI and DSCR exclude the CapEx reserve?+
The workbook follows the lender-standard convention, the same one the TrueCap analyzer uses: NOI and DSCR exclude the CapEx reserve, because CapEx is a below-the-line return-of-capital reserve rather than an operating expense — but cash flow still subtracts it, because the roof fund is real money leaving your account. Many free templates mix these up, which quietly overstates DSCR or understates cash flow.
What does the 10-year projection assume?+
By default, rent and operating expenses each grow 2.5% per year (both editable) while the principal-and-interest payment stays fixed. It's deliberately simple: PMI changes, principal paydown, and appreciation are not modeled in the spreadsheet. The TrueCap analyzer adds a scheduled loan balance and a 10-year cash-flow and equity planning view; it does not currently expose a tax-specific module.
Spreadsheet or the TrueCap analyzer — which should I use?+
Use the spreadsheet when you want full control of every cell or need to work offline. Use the analyzer when you want speed: type an address and it pre-fills editable, labeled screening benchmarks, then layers on PMI modeling, 10-year cash-flow and equity projections, sensitivity, Offer Ceiling, Buy Box fit, and a Deal score.
Can I share or modify the file?+
Yes — it's yours. Copy it per deal, add tabs, change assumptions, send it to your agent or lender. If you find the copy-a-file-per-deal workflow getting old, that's the exact problem the TrueCap analyzer exists to solve: saved deals, side-by-side compare, and share links instead of email attachments.