How to Use Rental Analyst's Analyze a Deal Tool

The Analyze a Deal page is the fastest way to run the numbers on any Canadian rental property. You do not need an account to start. Enter a purchase price and monthly rent and the calculator runs instantly, showing cash flow, DSCR, cap rate, and cash-on-cash return in real time as you type. This guide walks through every field, explains what each one does, and shows you how to go from a blank form to a saved property in your dashboard.

You can follow along at rentalanalyst.ca/analyze-a-deal. No sign-up required to run the numbers.

The Two Required Fields

The calculator needs only two inputs to produce results: purchase price and monthly rent. As soon as you enter both, the results panel on the right side of the page comes to life and starts updating in real time with every keystroke.

Purchase price is the listing price or the offer you are considering, not the assessed value. Use the actual number you would put on a contract.

Monthly rent is the expected rent from tenants. For a multi-unit property, enter the total combined rent across all units. If you are not sure what the property will rent for, check comparable listings in the area before running the numbers. Rent is the single most important driver of whether a deal works, so using a realistic figure matters more than any other input.

With just these two fields filled in, the calculator uses the current OSFI stress test rate, a 25-year amortization, and sensible defaults for the other fields to give you an immediate read on the deal.

The Mortgage Fields

Three fields control the financing assumptions:

• Down payment (%). Defaults to 20%, the minimum required for a pure investment property in Canada. Changing this adjusts the mortgage amount, monthly payment, and all return metrics instantly. Try 25% or 35% to see how more capital down changes cash flow and cash-on-cash return.
• Mortgage rate (%). This is your contract rate, the rate you expect to negotiate with your lender, before the OSFI stress test adjustment. The stress test rate shown above the field (currently 6.49%) is your contract rate plus 2%, which is what the calculator uses to qualify the mortgage. The posted rate shown (currently 4.49%) is a reference benchmark. Enter the rate you actually expect to pay.
• Amortization (yrs). Defaults to 25 years, the standard for Canadian investment properties. Extending to 30 years reduces the monthly payment but increases total interest paid. Shortening to 20 years increases the payment but builds equity faster.

For a full explanation of how the stress test works and why it matters, see How to Analyze a Rental Property in Canada.

Property Details and City

City is used to set default values for property tax and insurance when you have not entered those manually. Selecting Hamilton, Kitchener, or Toronto pulls in a reasonable starting estimate for those fields based on typical rates in each municipality. You should always verify property tax with the actual municipal rate for the specific address and get an insurance quote from a broker, but the city defaults give you a useful starting point before you have those exact numbers.

Property type lets you specify condo, semi-detached, single-family, townhouse, duplex, or multi-family. This affects the default expense assumptions the calculator applies.

Deal nickname is how the property will appear in your dashboard if you save it. Use something you will recognise later, for example "Hamilton duplex offer" or "Kitchener condo 2BR." This field has no effect on the calculation.

The Expense Fields

Four expense fields complete the picture. Each one has a helper note explaining what a reasonable input looks like:

• Annual property tax ($). Typically 0.5% to 1.5% of purchase price per year depending on municipality. Toronto's effective rate is lower than Hamilton's on a per-dollar-of-value basis. Verify with the municipality or the MLS listing, which often shows the most recent tax bill.
• Annual insurance ($). Budget $800 to $2,000 per year as a starting point. Condo units are typically at the lower end; houses and duplexes are higher. Get an actual quote before finalising any analysis.
• Condo fees ($/mo). Only relevant for condo purchases. Check the MLS listing or ask the listing agent for the exact amount. Condo fees vary widely and can be a major expense that changes whether a deal works. A $600/month condo fee on a $2,200/month rental is a fundamentally different deal than a $300/month fee.
• Maintenance ($/mo). A common rule of thumb is 1% of purchase price per year, divided by 12 for a monthly figure. On a $650,000 property that is approximately $542/month. Older properties and those with deferred maintenance should budget higher. This is one of the most commonly underestimated expenses in rental property analysis.
• Vacancy rate (%). Many Canadian landlords budget 3% to 5%. With national vacancy rates rising to 3.1% in 2025 according to CMHC, using 5% is a prudent assumption in most Ontario markets right now. The calculator applies this as a reduction to effective monthly income.

None of these fields are required to get results. The calculator runs on the required fields and improves in accuracy as you fill in more detail. The results panel warns you when important fields are empty so you know which numbers to treat as estimates.

Reading the Live Results Panel

The results panel on the right updates in real time as you type. No submit button, no page reload. Four metrics are shown:

• Monthly Cash Flow. Net cash after all expenses and the mortgage payment. Negative means the property costs you money each month beyond what rent covers. This is the most intuitive number but not the only one that matters.
• DSCR. Debt service coverage ratio. Rental income divided by total mortgage payment. Below 1.0 means rent does not cover the mortgage. Most Canadian lenders require 1.20x to 1.25x minimum for investment property financing. For more on what DSCR thresholds mean, see What Is a Good DSCR for a Canadian Rental Property.
• Cap Rate. Net operating income divided by purchase price. Useful for comparing properties against each other and against market benchmarks. Does not account for financing.
• Cash-on-Cash. Annual net cash flow divided by total cash deployed (down payment plus closing costs). Tells you what your invested capital is actually earning as a cash return. Negative means your cash is producing a negative return before accounting for equity buildup or appreciation.

For a full explanation of how these metrics work together and what to do when they conflict, see Cap Rate, Cash-on-Cash, DSCR: What's the Difference.

Saving the Property to Your Dashboard

Once you have entered your inputs and are happy with the analysis, you can save the property to your dashboard. This requires a free account. If you are not signed in, you will be prompted to sign up or log in at that point.

Saving the property unlocks the full Rental Analyst feature set: the Dashboard with RA Score and 10-year cash flow projection, the Renewal tab for modeling upcoming mortgage renewals, the Scenarios tab for running hold vs sell vs refi side by side, the 30-Year View for projecting long-run wealth, and the Portfolio tab for tracking multiple properties together.

The free plan supports one saved property. The Investor plan ($19/month) supports up to five. The Portfolio plan ($39/month) supports unlimited properties and unlocks the Portfolio tab and PDF export.

A Practical Workflow for Evaluating a New Deal

Here is the sequence to follow when a new property comes up:

• Step 1. Enter purchase price and monthly rent first. Look at the four metrics immediately. If DSCR is below 0.80 and cash flow is deeply negative at default assumptions, the deal has a structural problem that better expense inputs are unlikely to fix. Decide whether to keep going.
• Step 2. Enter your actual down payment percentage and expected mortgage rate. These two inputs have the biggest impact on the results after price and rent.
• Step 3. Select the city and property type to load sensible expense defaults. Then refine property tax and insurance with actual figures from the listing or your broker.
• Step 4. Enter maintenance and vacancy. These are the two most commonly skipped fields and the two most commonly underestimated expenses. Skipping them makes the deal look better than it is.
• Step 5. Read the final four metrics. If cash flow is acceptable and DSCR is above 1.0, save the property and open the Dashboard to model the renewal and 30-year trajectory before making an offer.

The entire process from blank form to informed decision takes under five minutes on a property you are seriously considering. Running it on a property you are unsure about takes under two minutes and will tell you whether it is worth a closer look.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, mortgage, or tax advice. All calculator results are estimates based on user-provided inputs. Verify all figures with your mortgage broker, accountant, and relevant professionals before making any investment decision.