How to compare rental properties before you buy

Analyzing one property and choosing among several are different jobs. On one property you can go deep. Across five, depth slows you down: you want the same few numbers on all of them, side by side, so the weak ones drop out fast. Most people compare on price, or on which unit showed best when they walked it, which is how you talk yourself into the wrong building.

The numbers that separate deals are the ones you would run on any single property, just lined up. Price and rent set the 1% check, a rough sort that asks whether monthly rent is near a hundredth of the price. The cap rate says what each earns before financing. The 50% rule gives a fast read on whether anything is left after expenses and the loan. Break-even rent shows which ones have room if rent slips. The free cap rate and break-even calculators run those two on a single property if you want to check the sheet against them. Run all of it across the list and the bottom third usually removes itself.

Watch the high number. The best cap rate on the sheet is often the property in the worst location, priced low because nobody wants it. A comparison tells you which properties are worth a closer look, not which one to buy. It screens; it does not decide.

Screen wide first. Put every property you are weighing through the same quick numbers, drop the ones that cannot clear them, and give the two or three that survive the full version. The Deal Screener does the screening part: five properties side by side, the same arithmetic on each, in Excel and Google Sheets, free. When a property earns the closer look, the Rental Property Analyzer takes that single property apart in full.