When buying a rental property, how do you calculate costs?

[Account Closed]

Hi! New here and would like to learn a bit. I've heard people mention that a huge mistake new landlords make is not realizing there are costs other than PITI. What are those other costs? What kind of money should I have when buying my first rental, and what kind of money should that be (savings in bank, loans, etc)?

[Robert Arnold]

Hi Sarah, there is a great podcast about using the rental property calculator to estimate other costs outside of the ones you mentioned. We run every property we consider through this calculator. It allows for calculations of utilities, repair percentages (5-10%), capital expenses (5-10%) and property management (8-10%). Honestly we didn't get good at estimating until we ran 40-50 properties. Can't remember the title of the podcast but that's where we started and have had good luck.