Free calculator
1% rule calculator
Check whether a rental’s monthly rent lands at or above 1% of its price — a quick first-pass screen investors use. It’s a filter, not a rule: the estimate is based on your own numbers.
The short answer
Last updated: July 2026
The 1% rule is a quick screen: a rental’s monthly rent should be at least 1% of its purchase price. On a $200,000 property that’s $2,000 a month. Meeting it suggests the rent is high enough relative to price to be worth analyzing. It ignores expenses and financing, so it’s a filter, not a verdict.
After the estimate:
Self-management software1% rule calculator
Does the rent clear the 1% rule?
A quick screen investors use: monthly rent at or above 1% of the purchase price. It's a first-pass filter, not a rule — a deal can miss it and still work.
Purchase price
$
Monthly rent
$
The 1% rule is a back-of-envelope screen, not a law or a guarantee. It ignores expenses, financing, and your market — plenty of sound rentals fall short of it, especially in higher-priced areas.
Input-driven result
Your inputs
Formula
Result below
Rent as a % of price
0.87%
$2,600 monthly rent ÷ $300,000 price. The 1% rule looks for 1.00% or more.
Rent the 1% rule targets
$3,000
1% of $300,000 — the monthly rent that would exactly meet the screen.
Below the 1% screen — worth a closer look
At 0.87%, the rent is under 1% of price. That's common in pricier markets — it's a flag to dig into the real numbers, not a rejection.
Monthly rent versus 1% screen
Monthly rent
$2,600
1% target rent
$3,000
Difference from target
$400
Estimate based on your inputs. Not a promise of results.
How it works
How this tool works.
The 1% rule is shorthand investors use to triage listings fast: if the monthly rent is at least 1% of the purchase price, the deal is worth a closer look. It’s a screen, not a law — a way to skip the obvious non-starters, not to pick winners.
Enter the price and the monthly rent, and this calculator shows the rent as a percentage of price, the rent the 1% target would imply, and whether the deal clears the screen. It’s arithmetic on your inputs — a first-pass filter that plenty of sound rentals miss, especially in pricier markets.
Make the result useful
One-percent-rule screening
Purchase price is the value used to set the monthly-rent screen.
Monthly rent is expected recurring rent, not a one-time incentive.
The 1% threshold is a chosen screening convention, not a universal requirement.
Expenses, financing, condition, and local demand must be reviewed after the quick screen.
Calculation lens
one-percent target rent = purchase price × 1%
Use the output as a documented scenario result, not a guarantee.
Does not calculate NOI, cash flow, or investment suitability.
Questions landlords ask
Questions about this tool and its limits.
Built by a landlord who's done every one of these jobs by hand.
Aptoria was built by an owner-operator managing a Brooklyn portfolio — the 11pm calls, the awkward rent texts, the April receipt-pile — not by a software team guessing at the problem.
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