Cleveland, Ohio · Cuyahoga County

What a Cleveland rental actually returns, once every cost is counted.

Enter a property. You get the return with the reserves, the vacancy, and the Cuyahoga tax reassessment built in — and you see, line by line, how much those add up to.

Why this exists. I buy, sell and hold in these ZIP codes. The costs that decide whether a Cleveland rental works are local — the reserves, the vacancy, and what the county does to the tax bill after you close. Standard calculators are not built to ask about them. This one uses the numbers I use.

Cuyahoga tax reassessmentYour tax bill is not the seller's tax bill. The county moves toward what you paid, damped by HB920.

CapEx priced off the buildingA roof costs the same in a cheap market as an expensive one. Reserves scale with the house, not the rent.

CMHA payment standards by ZIPFY2026 standards, effective 1 January 2026. Section 8 rent has a ceiling, and utilities eat into it.

Vacancy and turnover, separatelyVacancy from our own portfolio, plus a turnover line — because a turn costs money even when the unit is only empty for a week.

Run a deal

Seeded with a real Cleveland property. Change anything — every number updates as you type.

With standard assumptions28.63%$741.76 / monthFive percent vacancy, maintenance as a share of rent, no separate CapEx or turnover, and the seller's current tax bill.

With Cleveland assumptions21.22%$549.75 / monthReal reserves, vacancy from our own portfolio, and your tax bill after the county reassesses it.

The house is identical in both columns. The only difference is which costs get counted. That is a 7.4 point gap, or $192.01 a month you would not have planned for.

Standard

Cleveland

Monthly rent

$1,827

Vacancy5% assumed vs 4% from our portfolio

−$91

−$73

Property taxesreassessed after sale

−$182

−$188

Insurance

−$90

Property managementon gross vs on collected rent

−$146

−$158

Maintenance% of rent vs % of the building

−$91

−$117

CapEx reserveroof, furnace, windows

not counted

−$117

Turnovermake-ready and re-leasing

not counted

−$50

Net operating income

$1,227

$1,035

Debt service

−$484.88

Monthly cash flow

$741.76

$549.75

Cash in the deal

$31,088

Cash-on-cash, year one

28.63%

21.22%

WatchYour tax bill will not be the seller's tax bill. They pay $2,178. At $105,000 Cuyahoga moves toward $2,257 — $79 a year more, already in the numbers above.

WatchStandard assumptions overstate this deal by 7.4 points. Most of it is the reserve lines: $117 a month of CapEx and $50 of turnover, plus the tax step-up.

GoodAt $105,000 this clears a 12% return. 21.22% cash-on-cash in year one, after reserves.

What should you actually offer?

The numbers above tell you what this deal does at $105,000. This is the most you can pay and still clear every test a careful buyer and a lender would run — 12% cash-on-cash, a 10% cap rate on all-in cost, a 1.25 DSCR, and an equity cushion after rehab.

Your max offer$119,000limited by an equity cushion — all-in never above 85% of value

Room against the ask+$14,000the price on the table clears every test

Cash flow at that price$475.75per month, after reserves

Where should I send it?

Your max offer on this property, plus the full breakdown as a PDF. No newsletter unless you ask for one.

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What is behind the numbers

The tax line

Cuyahoga reassessed residential values up 32% countywide in 2024, and 49% inside the City of Cleveland. HB920 damped the bill increases to roughly a third of that. Next triennial update: 2027. The calculator models the step-up rather than quoting you the seller's bill.

The reserve lines

Vacancy, maintenance, CapEx and turnover are four separate costs with four different drivers. Collapsing them into one percentage of rent is how a Cleveland house can look like it cash flows twice what it does.

The Section 8 ceiling

CMHA caps gross rent — contract rent plus the utility allowance. If the tenant pays water on a three bedroom, $248 a month comes straight off what you can charge. That is the number people miss.

What this is not

It is an underwriting model, not an appraisal and not a guarantee. Verify rents, taxes, insurance and condition before you buy anything. If a number here looks wrong for your deal, it probably is — call me and we will go through it.

Great Devine Development Incorporated · Cleveland, Ohio · 216-488-8760 · info@greatdevinedevelopment.com
CMHA payment standards shown are 1 January 2026 (FY2026). Verify any specific unit in CMHA's rent determination tool before contracting. Projections are based on the assumptions shown and are not a guarantee of performance.