Datum Investment Solutions
Notes on buying rental property — what the numbers mean, what the markets are doing, and what we are seeing on the ground.
September 9, 2026
The reserve line, and why our cash flow looks lower
Roofs and furnaces are lumpy and certain. A model with no line for them overstates every year of a projection, and the error compounds.
Neil Greene
September 9, 2026
September 2, 2026
Break-even occupancy, and the month it matters
The figure says how empty a house can get before it starts costing you money. It is the one number on the listing that is about risk rather than return.
Alice Mwangi
September 2, 2026
September 1, 2026
DSCR is the number the lender is actually reading
You are underwriting the return. The lender is underwriting one ratio, and if it comes in under 1.20 the rest of your model does not get read.
Jessica Pool
September 1, 2026
August 22, 2026
The tax bill you inherit is not the one you will pay
In a lot of counties a sale resets the assessment. The seller's tax line is then the last honest month of it, and a model that copies it is wrong from year one.
Ruben Ortega
August 22, 2026
August 21, 2026
Cap rate is not your return
It is a price, quoted as a percentage. Treating it as a yield is the most common mistake in a first rental purchase.
Priya Raman
August 21, 2026
August 10, 2026
What a rent estimate is worth, and what it is not
An estimate is a claim about a house that is not on the market. Here is how ours is built, and the three ways it can be wrong.
Jessica Pool
August 10, 2026
July 30, 2026
What the twenty-year projection is actually claiming
It is not a forecast. It is four assumptions compounded, printed so you can argue with each of them separately.
Hannah Lindqvist
July 30, 2026
July 29, 2026
The first year costs more than the model says
Turn, lease-up, and the month nobody budgets. A twenty-year projection is usually right about year eight and wrong about year one.
Tom Bradbury
July 29, 2026
July 18, 2026
Ten percent to a manager, and what it does not cover
The management fee is the part everybody models. The leasing fee, the renewal fee and the markup on repairs decide what management actually costs.
Desmond Clarke
July 18, 2026
July 17, 2026
Eight percent is not eight percent
What property management actually costs, once the fees that are not the management fee are counted.
Tom Bradbury
July 17, 2026
July 4, 2026
Insurance is the line that moved
Every other expense drifted with inflation. This one did not, and a model carrying a three-year-old premium is wrong by more than it looks.
Priya Raman
July 4, 2026
June 20, 2026
Equity at close is not money
Buying at eighty cents on the dollar shows up as equity the day you close. Getting it out costs a sale, and a sale costs about nine percent.
Yuki Tanaka
June 20, 2026
June 17, 2026
Cash on cash, and the trap in the leveraged number
Leverage makes the headline return bigger and the property harder to hold. Both are true at once, and only one of them is printed.
Jessica Pool
June 17, 2026
June 1, 2026
What a metro's headline numbers hide
Population growth, job growth and median rent are the three figures every market article quotes. None of them is about the street you are buying on.
Tom Bradbury
June 1, 2026
June 1, 2026
A saved scenario is how you argue with us
Our assumptions are on the page so you can replace them. Saving the replacement is what turns a disagreement into a comparison.
Nora Feldman
June 1, 2026
May 10, 2026
Before you wire anything
Eight checks between an accepted offer and a closing, in the order they cost you money if you skip them.
Priya Raman
May 10, 2026