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Internal draft for review — not published to prospects
The "Is It a Great Deal?" Analyzer

Not average. Not good. Great.

We boil a deal down to one metric, and here is the calculator we use to do it. Punch in five numbers and see whether the property in front of you is actually working, and which of the six ways it is making money.

Savvy agents will keep sending you listings. The problem is not finding deals. The problem is knowing whether a deal is any good, and most doctors have no filter for it. So you either freeze, or you trust the agent's adjectives.

There is a faster way. We boil it down to one metric: cash-on-cash return. It answers the only question that matters at the front of the process, which is whether the money you put in is actually earning its keep, at today's rates, before you fall in love with the photos.

Run the number

Cash-on-cash is annual net cashflow divided by the cash you put down. Monthly principal and interest are computed on a 30-year loan at the rate you enter. Change the assumptions and the number moves. The method does not. VERIFY thresholds and 30-yr term with SRMD

The six ways real estate makes money

Cash-on-cash is the front-door filter. But a great deal usually stacks more than one of these. Read your result against the full list, because the ways this property is not yet working are often the ones you can go create.

  • 1
    Cash flow. Rent left over after the loan and every expense. This is the one the calculator above measures directly.
  • 2
    Immediate appreciation. Buying below what the property is already worth. The gap is yours the day you close.
  • 3
    Forced appreciation. Value you create by raising rents, cutting expenses, or renovating. You make it, you do not wait for it.
  • 4
    Tenants paying down the mortgage. Every payment your tenant makes buys you a little more of the building. Quiet, automatic equity.
  • 5
    Tax benefits. Depreciation and the REPS or short-term-rental path can shelter income. Real, and the reason many doctors start.
  • 6
    Market appreciation. The market drifting up over time. Nice when it happens, never the reason to buy.
Kenji's guardrail: "Don't let the tax tail wag the dog. You've got to buy good investments." The tax benefit in way five is the icing. Ways one through four are the cake. If a deal only works because of the tax write-off, it is not a deal, it is a costume.

Get the analyzer, plus a worked example

Want this calculator and a walkthrough of five real listings run through it, two that work and three that don't? Drop your email and we will send it over.

WIRING TBD — this capture form is a mock for review. It is not connected to any list, CRM, or PDF generator yet.

Whenever you're ready, 3 ways we can help

  1. Curious what real estate could do to your tax bill? Run the REPS / STR-Loophole Savings Estimator. Two minutes, one number. Run it →
  2. Want to find the deals nobody else spots? Grab the Hidden Value Playbook, the 5 searches we actually run. Get the playbook →
  3. Want to talk it through with a real person? Reply "TALK" to any of our emails and someone on our team (a real one, not a bot) will reach out.

Semi-Retired MD provides education, not tax, legal, or investment advice. These are estimates only. Run everything here past your own licensed professionals. Draft prepared for internal review; all numbers marked VERIFY must be confirmed before publication.