IRR & Equity Multiple Calculator
Estimate levered return and total multiple from a simple cash-flow stream.
Estimate the levered return (IRR), equity multiple, and average cash-on-cash from your equity, the yearly cash flows, and the exit. Required: equity and the year cash flows. Tip: use Fill to apply one level cash flow to every year.
Enter your equity, the per-year cash flows, and sale proceeds to estimate the levered return.
How it's calculated
IRR is the discount rate where the NPV of [ −equity, year 1, …, year N ] is zero, with net sale proceeds added to the final year. Equity multiple = total positive cash returned (incl. sale) ÷ equity invested. Average cash-on-cash = mean annual operating cash flow ÷ equity (excludes the sale).
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A chatbot guesses the math. This is computed.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between IRR, equity multiple, and cash-on-cash?
IRR is the time-weighted annual return — it rewards getting money back fast. The equity multiple is total dollars returned divided by equity invested, and ignores timing. Cash-on-cash is a single year's cash flow divided by equity, and ignores the exit. They answer different questions, so read all three together.
What is a good IRR for a real estate deal?
It depends on risk and strategy. Levered value-add deals are often underwritten to the mid-teens or higher, while stabilized core deals target less. An IRR only means something next to the risk taken — and next to how much of the return rests on the exit assumption rather than in-place cash flow.
Why can a high IRR be misleading?
IRR is highly sensitive to the size and timing of the final cash flow, so a return built mostly on an optimistic exit — a tighter exit cap or a big back-end sale — can post a high IRR while paying almost no cash along the way. Pair it with the equity multiple and the year-by-year cash-on-cash to see where the return actually comes from.
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