My First Rental Property: Every Number, From Offer to Tenant

I looked for a rental property for several years before I bought one. I ran deal after deal, and most of them didn't work on paper. In spring 2026 I finally found a fit: a single-family home in Maine that needed some work.

It's rented now at $2,650 a month, right in the middle of the range I projected before making an offer. This post lays out every number, from the offer through the first tenant: what I paid, what it cost to get it rentable, what it earns, and what the analysis says about whether it was a good deal. I'm sharing all of it because real numbers from a real first deal are hard to find.

The deal at a glance

Buying it: the costs before closing

A few costs come due well before closing day, and they add up. Here's what I paid up front:

Total cash to close came to $66,443, covering the down payment plus closing costs. I came up with it from savings and my Roth retirement accounts. With a Roth, the money you contributed has already been taxed, so those contributions can generally come back out without more tax. The earnings are a different story, and the withdrawal rules differ between a Roth IRA and a Roth 401(k), so talk to a tax advisor before you tap one. If you're planning a first purchase, budget for closing costs of roughly 3% of the price on top of your down payment. They're easy to underestimate.

The fix-up: about $11,000 before the first tenant

The house needed work before it was ready to rent. I spent about $11,000 on improvements before renting it out:

• Interior paint. I hired painters for the first floor and ended up painting part of the upstairs myself. More on why that was a mistake below.
• New entry stairs. I redid the stairs up to the front door. It's the first thing a prospective renter sees, and the house presented much better afterward.
• Doors and deck. I painted the doors and power-washed the deck. These are cheap fixes that make a place look cared for.
• Contractor repairs. I brought in contractors for a few items that were beyond a weekend project.
• Yard and gardens. I did this part myself: cleaning up the yard and getting the gardens back in shape. It costs little beyond time and makes a big difference in the first impression.

Renting it out

Before I made an offer, I didn't settle on a single rent number. I projected a range: $2,400 on the low end and $2,800 on the high end, and I made sure I was comfortable moving forward at either one.

Even at the low end, the property still covered all its costs and stayed cash-flow positive. That was the test that mattered to me. The house rented at $2,650 a month, comfortably inside that range.

If your rent estimate is wrong, every other number in the analysis is wrong with it. Run both a high and a low projection, and only move forward if you can live with the low one.

The numbers: year one

Here's what actually lands in my account each month right now:

That's real money today, but it isn't all profit. Sooner or later a tenant moves out and something breaks. So for planning, I set aside reserves for vacancy and repairs. I manage the property myself, so there's no management fee. Here's the full year on that basis:

That's a 5.4% cash-on-cash return on the $76,900 I put in, and an 8.2% cap rate on the purchase price. Cash flow is solid but not huge, which is typical for a single family bought with a 7.5% mortgage. In a year with no turnover and no big repairs, I keep more of the roughly $550 a month.

Cash flow grows every year

The mortgage payment is fixed, but rent isn't. Assuming rent and expenses each rise about 3% a year, cash flow after reserves grows like this:

By year five, cash flow after reserves is about 70% higher than in year one. That depends on rent actually keeping pace, though. If rent stays flat while costs rise, cash flow would slowly shrink instead.

Cash flow is only part of the return

Year-one cash flow tells only part of the story. A rental pays you in four ways, and here's how they add up in year one:

A note on that last line: appreciation is an assumption, not a guarantee. Even setting it aside, cash flow plus principal paydown plus the tax benefit comes to about $6,700, or roughly 8.7% on the cash I put in. The tax benefit comes from depreciation, which lets you deduct part of the building's value each year. It turns the first year into a small paper loss for tax purposes, even though the property is cash-flow positive.

Over a five-year hold, assuming 3% annual growth in rent, expenses and value, and selling at a 7.5% cap rate, the projected IRR is about 12.6% on my invested cash.

Would a lender approve it? DSCR

The debt service coverage ratio measures whether the rent covers the loan. On this property:

• Lender-style DSCR (rent ÷ principal, interest, taxes and insurance): $2,650 ÷ $2,094 = 1.27, which clears the 1.25 level most DSCR lenders like to see.
• NOI-based DSCR (after vacancy and all operating costs): 1.22. The property covers its debt with room to spare, but not a lot.

If you want to run this on your own deal, the free DSCR calculator shows both versions side by side.

What ElmCheck says about it

I built ElmCheck from the same spreadsheet I used to analyze this house, so it's fitting to put my own deal through it. With a 5% cash-on-cash target, it calls this a "Buy," but only just. Cash-on-cash comes in at 5.4%, and DSCR at 1.22, just above the 1.2 bar.

Here's what's interesting: add a typical property management fee and the verdict changes. At even 2% of rent for management, cash-on-cash drops to 4.6%, below the target, and ElmCheck calls it a "Maybe." Managing it myself is part of what makes this deal work. If you plan to hire a manager, put that cost into your analysis from day one.

What I learned

Paint the whole interior, and have the pros do it. I had the painters do only the first floor. That was a mistake. Getting the rent I was after meant the entire interior had to look fresh, so the rest still needed doing. I ended up painting part of the upstairs myself, and it turned into a real time sink. If the rent you're counting on depends on the whole place looking finished, budget to paint all of it professionally from the start.

Spell out exactly what you expect from contractors. Be specific with your painter about what's included: every room, all the trim, doors and closets. Don't assume "paint the interior" means the same thing to them as it does to you. A clear scope up front avoids gaps you end up filling in yourself.

Spend on first impressions. The new entry stairs, painted doors and a power-washed deck weren't big projects, but they changed how the house showed to prospective renters. The approach to the front door is the first thing people judge.

What the numbers show

• Count the fix-up as part of your investment. The $11,000 of work is about a seventh of the total cash in. Leave it out and every return looks better than it really is.
• At today's rates, cash flow on a single family is modest. About $350 a month after reserves doesn't leave much room for a surprise repair, so keep cash set aside.
• Self-managing moved this deal from "Maybe" to "Buy." On a thin-margin deal, a management fee can be the difference.
• Most of the return comes from somewhere other than cash flow. Principal paydown and appreciation make up the bulk of the year-one total.
• Plan for a range of rents, not one number. I was comfortable at both $2,400 and $2,800, so landing at $2,650 meant the analysis held up either way.

Run the numbers yourself

Every figure in this post comes from the same analysis ElmCheck runs. Open my deal with all the inputs filled in, then change the price, rate or rent to see how the picture shifts.

Free. No sign-up. Change any number and the results update instantly.