Real Estate Investing (Rentals)

How these numbers were built: the margin is net operating income (NOI), rent collected minus operating costs, before the loan and before your own pay, and it is labeled that way throughout. Your plan takes the loan payment out of NOI separately, so the margin is never read as profit after the mortgage. The NOI split comes from the National Apartment Association’s dollar-of-rent survey; the expense ratio, cap rate, occupancy and loan to value for small buildings come from Arbor’s Small Multifamily Investment Trends Report; price per unit comes from Yardi Matrix data reported by Multi-Housing News; insurance, make-ready and license costs come from current industry and city fee pages; management wages come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS (SOC 11-9141); and establishment counts come from the U.S. Census Bureau (NAICS 531110). These are starting assumptions; the moment you enter a real property’s rent roll, expenses, cap rate and loan, your numbers should replace ours. Figures are current as of 2025 to 2026 and refreshed as the sources update.

The NOI margin band comes from the National Apartment Association’s 2024 dollar-of-rent split (about 55 cents of NOI before the mortgage) and Arbor’s 2025 small multifamily data (a 40.8% expense ratio, 6.0% cap rate, 97.3% occupancy and about 61% loan to value); price per unit comes from Yardi Matrix sales data; the opening kit from current fee schedules and cost guides. Both surveys lean to professionally managed buildings; a small self-managed building can keep more but pays for it with your time.