Rental Deal Screener
The 1%, 50% and 70% rules in one pass, so bad deals die in thirty seconds. 100% free, no signup. Everything runs in your browser.
Loading the tool…
This rental deal screener is the 30 second triage I run before any real analysis. Enter four numbers, the purchase price, the expected monthly rent, your estimated repairs and the after repair value, and it runs the classic rules of thumb at once: the 1 percent rule, the 2 percent rule, the 50 percent rule with an estimated cash flow, the 70 percent rule for flips, and the gross rent multiplier. Each one comes back with the actual figure and a plain pass or fail, so you can stop reading a listing that was never going to work.
I built this because I kept spending twenty minutes building a full model for properties I should have rejected in twenty seconds. It runs entirely in your browser with nothing uploaded, and every one of these rules is a screening shortcut rather than an analysis. Treat the output as a reason to look closer or move on, not as a verdict, and remember it is arithmetic on your assumptions, not financial advice.
How to use
- Enter the purchase price, using the asking price if you are screening a listing or your planned offer if you have one in mind.
- Enter the expected monthly rent, taken from comparable rentals nearby rather than from the seller's optimistic pro forma.
- Enter your estimated repair budget, even if it is a rough guess at this stage.
- Enter the after repair value if you are testing the property as a flip. Leave it out and the flip rule simply sits idle.
- Read each rule in turn: the ratio or dollar figure it produced, and whether that clears the traditional threshold.
- Use the results to sort, not to decide. A pass means it deserves a proper model, and a fail means you just saved yourself an afternoon.
Why use our rental deal screener?
The 1 percent rule asks whether monthly rent reaches 1 percent of the purchase price, and it is popular because it is fast, not because it is right. It ignores property taxes, insurance, HOA dues and interest rates entirely, which is why a property at 0.8 percent in a low tax state can beat one at 1.1 percent somewhere with heavy taxes and a condo fee. The number I got wrong first was this one. I passed on a house that missed the rule, a friend bought it, and years later it is still quietly working.
The 2 percent rule is here mostly for honesty, labeled as the legacy target it has become. It described a market that barely exists now outside distressed property in difficult areas, and chasing it as a standard will either keep you on the sidelines or push you into risk you have not priced. I left it in because people search for it and deserve a straight answer.
The 50 percent rule assumes operating expenses eat half your gross rent, then subtracts your mortgage payment to give an estimated cash flow. It is a surprisingly durable rule of thumb across a portfolio and a poor one for any single property, since it knows nothing about your actual tax bill or whether the roof is new. When the estimate looks tight, the cap rate calculator will give you a real net operating income instead of an assumed one.
The 70 percent rule for flips caps your maximum offer at 70 percent of the after repair value minus repairs, and it exists to protect against the two things that sink flips: an optimistic ARV and an underestimated rehab. The margin absorbs holding costs, selling costs and the surprise behind the drywall. Once a property clears it, the house flip calculator does the real math with financing and carrying costs included.
The gross rent multiplier, price divided by annual gross rent, is the least famous number here and the most useful for comparing properties in one market. Lower is generally better, and because it makes no expense assumptions, it only means something against other properties nearby. The rental yield calculator is the next step when you want a percentage instead of a multiple.
Who is this tool for?
Sorting a morning's listings is the core use. Ten new properties appear, you screen them in five minutes, and two survive. Rules of thumb are cheap enough to run on everything, which is what makes them useful and why they should never be the last word.
Setting an offer price on a flip candidate is the second use. The 70 percent rule gives you a ceiling in seconds, and having that figure in your head before you walk a property keeps enthusiasm from rewriting your budget while you stand in the kitchen.
Reality checking a listing that markets itself as an investment is the third. Agents quote gross rent because gross rent sounds wonderful. Running the 50 percent rule against their own numbers takes ten seconds and often turns an advertised four hundred dollars a month into something near zero.
Learning a new market is the use I would recommend most to beginners. Screen thirty properties across a few neighborhoods and you will start to feel where the rent to price relationship actually sits locally, which is knowledge no article can give you. When something looks genuinely good, move it into the rental property calculator and do the work properly.
Frequently asked questions
It is still a useful sorting shortcut and it was never a valid analysis. In many markets almost nothing clears it now, so treat it as a relative filter within one area rather than an absolute standard you apply everywhere.
Yes, routinely. Low tax jurisdictions, properties with immediate rent upside and unusually cheap financing all produce deals that fail the 1 percent rule and perform well. The rules cannot see any of that.
Absolutely, and this is the more dangerous direction. A property can clear every rule here and still be ruined by deferred maintenance, a special assessment, a tough tenant market or a rehab estimate that was fiction.
It assumes operating expenses, including vacancy, maintenance, taxes, insurance and management but excluding your mortgage, consume about half of gross rent. It is a portfolio level rule of thumb, not a forecast for one house.
Maximum offer equals 70 percent of the after repair value minus the repair budget. The 30 percent left over covers holding costs, selling costs, financing and your profit, which is thinner than it sounds.
There is no universal figure, because it moves with market and property type. Compare candidates in the same area, and be suspicious of any number far better than everything around it.
No. These rules assume the property is bought for income. If you are buying a home to live in, the tradeoffs are different, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guide to owning a home is a better starting point.
No. It all runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and there is no account or email required.