Deal Screening
The one-page deal screen. Price, rent, taxes, and financing — enough to triage 20 listings in 30 minutes and figure out which ones deserve a real underwrite. This is the funnel before the funnel.
Best for
Use it when
Every figure updates as you type — the defaults are typical Indianapolis numbers.
The 30-second deal screen
Borderline — run the full underwriting model before deciding.
Indianapolis benchmarks
1.00%
The classic 1% rule threshold — monthly rent ÷ purchase price
2.00%
The aggressive 2% rule — realistically only found in low-cost markets
0.6–0.9%
Rent-to-price ratio many Indianapolis single-family homes actually run today
≥0.8%
Ratio where a listing usually earns a full underwrite
Every number in the tool above comes from these formulas — nothing hidden.
Rent-to-price ratio (the 1% rule)
Ratio = monthly rent ÷ purchase price
At 1.00% the property passes the classic screen: a $150,000 house renting for $1,500. The ratio is a relative ranking tool within a market — not a verdict on any single deal.
Quick cash flow screen
Screen cash flow = rent × (1 − vacancy − maintenance − management) − taxes ÷ 12 − insurance ÷ 12 − HOA − P&I
The 1% rule’s honest cousin: the same rent line, but layered with the carrying costs that actually decide whether the deal cash flows.
Principal & interest
P&I = Loan × [r(1+r)ⁿ ÷ ((1+r)ⁿ − 1)]
r is the monthly rate and n the term in months. Your down payment and rate flow straight through to the cash flow verdict.
The 50% rule (sanity check)
Operating expenses ≈ 50% of gross rent over time, before the mortgage
The old rule of thumb that expenses — including capital items — eat about half of gross rent. Crude, but it catches wild underestimates fast.
The 1% rule says monthly rent should equal at least 1% of the purchase price: a $150,000 house should rent for $1,500. It’s a screen, not an underwrite — it captures none of the details (taxes, insurance, HOA, condition, interest rate) that decide whether a deal actually works, and it treats a $70,000 rough-neighborhood bungalow and a $400,000 suburban new build as comparable math.
In today’s Indianapolis market, most single-family homes trade at 0.6–0.9% rent-to-price, so a strict 1% screen rejects nearly everything. Used properly, the ratio is a relative ranking tool: within your target neighborhoods, the 0.85% listings are simply better buys than the 0.60% ones — and only the exceptions deserve a second look.
This calculator fixes the 1% rule’s blind spot by layering real carrying costs on top of the ratio: county taxes, insurance, HOA, a 5% vacancy allowance, a maintenance reserve, and actual financing at your down payment and rate. The ratio gets you to the table; the cash flow line tells you whether to sit down.
That’s why two listings at the same ratio can get different verdicts — a Hamilton County home with premium taxes and an HOA carries heavier than a tax-light Marion County property, and a half-point of interest rate can flip the same listing from pass to fail.
The simple pro forma is for speed. It gives you enough structure to avoid chasing every listing while still catching the deals worth a closer look. Strong deals are not common — most investors review many listings for every one they pursue, and a fast screen is what makes that volume manageable.
The economics are brutal in your favor: if this 90-second screen saves you from one unnecessary showing, it has paid for a month of your analysis time. Volume, discipline, then depth — in that order.
A screen is a first date, not a marriage. If the simple pro forma looks promising — ratio at or above 0.8% with cash flow intact — move the property into the full Rental Underwriting Model for cash-on-cash and cap rate, the Cash Flow Model for the month-to-month view, or the Full IRR Calculator when the strategy is a multi-year hold with an exit. The Related calculators below take you straight there.
A pro forma is a projection of a property’s income, expenses, and cash flow based on expected rather than actual numbers. It estimates how an investment is likely to perform before you buy it. A simple one-page pro forma like this is most useful for quickly screening listings before committing to deeper analysis.
Estimate the rent, subtract a rough allowance for vacancy and expenses, subtract the mortgage payment, and check whether the deal cash flows at all. A fast screen lets you rule out weak listings in minutes so you only spend real time on the properties worth a full underwrite.
Most investors review many listings for every one they pursue — strong deals are not common. A fast pro forma makes that volume manageable: the goal is to quickly discard weak deals and move only the promising ones into detailed underwriting.
Rarely at face value. Most single-family homes in the metro now screen at 0.6–0.9% rent-to-price. You can still find 1% deals on lower-price properties in cash-flow neighborhoods or with value-add rent upside — but treat 1% as a flag worth investigating, not the market standard.
The 2% rule demands monthly rent equal to 2% of the purchase price — a stricter test designed for low-cost markets. A $350,000 property would need $7,000 in monthly rent to pass, which essentially no long-term market supports. When a listing passes 2% today, look closely: it usually signals a very low price point, which often comes with higher turnover, repair costs, and management burden.
The 50% rule estimates that operating expenses — including capital items — will consume roughly half of gross rental income over time, before the mortgage. It’s a reliable sanity check and an unreliable underwrite: real expense ratios run from about 35% on newer construction to 60%+ on older homes with owner-paid utilities. Use it to catch wild underestimates, then do the real math.
In Indianapolis, 0.8% or better with positive cash flow after honest expenses is a reasonable bar for a full underwrite. In stronger appreciation areas (Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville), lower ratios can still make sense when your thesis is growth rather than monthly income — but that’s a deliberate choice, not an accident.
Start with rent-estimate tools, then verify against actual listings: search rentals within a mile with similar beds, baths, and condition, and note what’s actually leasing — not just what’s asking. Your property manager or Austin can pull real comps for a specific address before you spend time on the full model.
In Indiana, a sale can reset the assessed value basis, and Marion County tax bills vary block to block — two identical houses can carry tax bills hundreds of dollars apart per year. On a thin-margin deal, a $150/month tax surprise is the whole cash flow, which is why the screen asks for the actual parcel taxes rather than estimating them.
These calculators are educational tools. Good underwriting still depends on accurate rents, expenses, financing, repairs, vacancy, management, and local market judgment.
Related calculators.
Rental Underwriting Model
The model Austin runs on every long-term buy-and-hold deal. Income, expenses, cash flow, cash-on-cash — all in one view.
Open calculator →
Cash Flow Model
Monthly income vs. expense projection on a single property. The clearest read on whether a deal pencils month-to-month.
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Full IRR Calculator
Multi-year IRR projection with loan payoff and exit proceeds. The one to use when you want the full lifetime return on a deal.
Open calculator →