Cash-on-cash return
Also called cash on cash, CoC, CoC return, cash-on-cash. Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026 by Jeremy Werden
Cash-on-cash return is a rental property's yearly cash flow as a percentage of the cash you put in to buy and set it up: $12,000 a year on $100,000 invested is 12%. Unlike cap rate, it reflects your financing. BNBCalc's version adds one year of revenue growth (3% by default) before dividing.
Cash-on-cash return = annual pre-tax cash flow ÷ total cash invested
How BNBCalc calculates it
Cash on Cash Return = (year-one cash flow + year-one revenue growth) ÷ total cash invested
On Buy and Own analyses, cash invested is the down payment, renovations and furnishing, and closing costs; on a Rent analysis it's renovations and furnishing plus setup costs. Revenue growth defaults to 3% a year, which adds 3% of a year's revenue to the cash flow before dividing.
A worked example
Take a $400,000 home with $60,000 of revenue and every default financing setting: 20% down at 6% over 30 years. After operating expenses and $26,983 of Mortgage & Taxes, it leaves $5,237 of cash flow on $100,500 of cash invested, which is a plain cash-on-cash return of 5.2%. BNBCalc adds 3% × $60,000 = $1,800 of revenue growth and shows ($5,237 + $1,800) ÷ $100,500 = 7.0%.
Is it a good cash-on-cash return?
Before you compare BNBCalc's figure with a rule of thumb or a lender's number, keep the revenue growth in mind: it added almost two points here. Set Revenue Appreciation to 0% in Investment Value Over Time if you want the plain figure. You'll find cash on cash on the Short Term Rental card and in Investment Value Over Time, which is called Cashflow Over Time on a Rent analysis.