What could one short-term rental do for you in 12 years?

Enter a home price, the number of bedrooms and your down payment. The calculator projects 12 years of cash flow, mortgage paydown and appreciation using the assumptions listed at the bottom of the page. It then shows your annualized return: everything the property earned, divided by the cash you put in, divided by the years you've owned it. That's the same simple method I use on my own four homes.

A one-year snapshot can't show you where a property is headed. Your mortgage payment stays the same while rents and property values tend to climb, so a good rental often looks ordinary in year one and much stronger by year six. I built my own financial model to see that whole trajectory before I buy.

I start with the market before the house: where people want to go, what they'll pay, how many months of the year they come, and what the local rules allow. I chose my four markets in Colorado, Alabama, North Carolina and Texas this way. The Masterclass has specific lessons on how I did it, and my students can bring me markets they're considering.

Inside the Masterclass, you can bring me a real house you're considering. I write it up with a letter grade and we can go through it together on a call. I use conservative assumptions and trim revenue for the first couple of years while a new listing builds reviews. If a house only works with optimistic numbers, I wouldn't buy it or advise a client to.

The whole process, start to finish: choosing a market, picking the right property, running the numbers, financing it, then setting it up and running it. It's 61 lessons, mostly videos of 6 to 15 minutes, so you can learn a little at a time. You keep them forever, with every update included. You also get the 12-year Profit Planner I use on my own homes.

You get me. I'm in touch with my Masterclass students every week, often more, and I answer questions myself.

Not always. Twenty percent down is common for a short-term rental, and some lenders offer options with less down. Use the slider above to see how different down payments change the picture, then talk with a lender about what fits you.

No. This is a simple calculator for illustration, built on the assumptions listed below. Every property and market is different, which is exactly why I teach people to run the real numbers on a real house before they buy.