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Understanding Your Cash-on-Cash Return

Track your real return on invested cash using Stessa's powerful performance metric.

Updated over a week ago

Why Cash-on-Cash Return Matters

Cash-on-cash return (CoC) is a critical metric for real estate investors because it:

  • Measures your actual return based on cash invested

  • Accounts for debt service, capital expenses, and net cash flow

  • Helps compare performance across properties and portfolios of different sizes

For more insight into how successful investors use this metric, check out our blog post on cash-on-cash returns.

Where to Find the Cash-on-Cash Return Metric

You'll see this metric on your Stessa dashboards, both at the Portfolio and Property level.

  • Located in the top-right corner of the dashboard

  • Displays your Trailing 12-Month (T12) return for a more stable performance snapshot

Monthly fluctuations are common. The T12 metric smooths out one-time anomalies for a more reliable view.

How Stessa Calculates Cash-on-Cash Return

Here's the formula Stessa uses to calculate your cash-on-cash return:

Net cash flow for the month
(after all debt service, including capex, not including transfers)

divided by

 Acquisition price

less original mortgage balance

less SUM of all net cash flow prior to "date placed in service"

Stessa’s formula may differ slightly from other sources (e.g., excluding capex or including principal). This is the standardized version used in the dashboard.

Troubleshooting Your Cash-on-Cash Return

Fixing the Numerator (Net Cash Flow)

  • Make sure bank and loan accounts are connected

  • Ensure all transactions are properly categorized and assigned to the correct property

  • Run the Net Cash Flow report to verify accuracy

Fixing the Denominator (Cash Invested)

  • Go to Properties page and review:

    • Acquisition Price

    • Date Placed in Service

  • Add missing closing costs on your Transactions page

  • Review and correct the Original Mortgage Amount under the “Loan Balance” section

  • Confirm capital expenses are categorized correctly, with proper dates:

    • Before Date Placed in Service → added to cash invested

    • After → affects monthly net cash flow

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