Owner ROI calculator
What will you actually net?
Most management calculators hide the leasing fee and assume zero vacancy. This one itemizes every fee we'd charge, reserves for maintenance, prints its assumptions — and shows the DIY column, which sometimes wins on paper. Change anything.
With Hearth & Ledger itemized
- Gross scheduled rent
- $22,200
- Vacancy loss
- −$640
- Rent collected
- $21,560
- Management fee (8% of collected)
- −$1,725
- Tenant placement, annualized
- −$463
- Renewal fee, annualized
- −$125
- Maintenance markup
- −$0, ever
- Maintenance reserve
- −$1,776
- Your other costs
- −$0
- Net to you, yearly
- $17,472
- ≈ per month
- $1,456
Total cost of management: $2,312 (10.7% of collected rent). Your hours: ~0.
DIY self-management honest column
- Gross scheduled rent
- $22,200
- Vacancy loss (+1.5 wks/turn)
- −$961
- Rent collected
- $21,239
- Management fee
- $0
- Listings + screening reports
- −$88
- Renewal fee
- $0
- Maintenance markup
- $0 (you coordinate)
- Maintenance reserve
- −$1,776
- Your other costs
- −$0
- Net to you, yearly
- $19,376
- ≈ per month
- $1,615
Your hours: ~65 hrs/yr — advertising, showings, screening, coordination, bookkeeping, and the 2am phone.
On these assumptions, DIY nets about $1,904 more per year — and costs roughly 65 hours of your time, which values that work at about $29/hour, plus being permanently on call. If that trade reads as a win for you, self-manage — genuinely. If it doesn't, that's the fee.
Printed assumptions — argue with them
- Turnovers per year = 12 ÷ expected stay (0.5/yr).
- Vacancy loss = weekly rent × vacant weeks × turnovers; DIY adds 1.5 weeks/turn (self-managed units lease slower without syndication, pro photos and daytime showings).
- Management fee: 8% of collected rent ($119/mo minimum), never charged while vacant.
- Placement 50% of one month per turnover; renewal $249 in non-turnover years — both spread per year.
- DIY leasing cost $175/turn (paid syndication + screening reports); your labor is counted in hours, not dollars — we won't price your time for you.
- Maintenance reserve is the same in both columns: vendors charge the same either way, and we add $0 markup.
- DIY hours ≈ 55/yr + 20 per turnover.
- Excluded from both columns: mortgage, depreciation, appreciation, and tax effects (management fees are typically deductible — ask your CPA, not a website).
No surprises, in writing
Numbers look wrong for your property?
Send us the real ones. The proposal comes back with a rent analysis for your street, not a slider default.