Vacation Rental Deal Analyzer — Excel Underwriting Calculator (Cash on Cash, DSCR)

Run your rentals before they run you. STR deal analyzer for Airbnb and VRBO acquisitions. Yes/no on a property in 10 minutes. Cash-on-cash, cap rate, DSCR, IRR, and a verdict. Editable Excel.

You're looking at three Zillow listings tonight. AirDNA wants $40 per property. The BiggerPockets calculator was built for long-term rentals. The BPCalc spreadsheet you downloaded last year is broken from a column rename. You need a yes/no on each in 10 minutes — and you need it to be the kind of yes/no your CPA or partner won't argue with.

This is that workbook. Twenty-five inputs across four categories — property, market, costs, finance — and one verdict at the end: ✅ DEAL, ⚠ MARGINAL, or ❌ PASS. Cash-on-cash, cap rate, DSCR, and 5-year IRR shown so you can see why.

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WHAT'S INCLUDED (LITE — $27)
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Excel workbook (6 tabs):

- Start — property name + address, large gold/green/red verdict, Y1 and stabilized cash flow side-by-side
- Property — address, type (single-family / cabin / condo / multi-unit / glamping / other), beds, baths, sqft, year built, lot type, key amenities (hot tub, pool, view) for ADR adjustment
- Market — ADR base + 3-comp average, stabilized occupancy %, avg LOS, peak/off-peak split, seasonality factor. "Paste from AirDNA" callout with instructions
- Costs — 15 cost lines mirroring the FIN-002 + TAX-002 column shape so you can paste between SKUs. Maintenance reserve 5% default, capex reserve 3% default, platform commission 15% default
- Finance — purchase price, down %, loan amount (auto), rate, term, closing, rehab, furnishing. Amortization-derived monthly + annual debt service displayed
- Verdict — cash-on-cash, cap rate, DSCR, 5-year IRR, break-even occupancy. Verdict string keyed to BiggerPockets STR cash-on-cash benchmark

Verdict thresholds (cited):
- ✅ DEAL — stabilized cash-on-cash > 8% AND DSCR > 1.25
- ⚠ MARGINAL — cash-on-cash 4-8% OR DSCR 1.05-1.25
- ❌ PASS — cash-on-cash < 4% OR DSCR < 1.05

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LITE vs FULL
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Lite ($27, this listing): single-scenario verdict. No stress test, no Y1-vs-stabilized toggle, no printable summary. Covers about 70% of the use case.

Full ($47, thestrledger.com): adds the Stress Test tab (Base / ADR -10% / full stress with occupancy to 55%, ADR -10%, expenses +20%), the Y1/Stabilized toggle on the Verdict tab, and a 1-page CPA/Partner Summary printable for emailing to a spouse or accountant. The stress test is the differentiator — most Etsy deal analyzers use AirDNA's median ADR and call the deal "good." Real underwriters stress to AirDNA's 25th percentile. The Full bakes that in.

If you're underwriting one or two properties a year, Lite is enough. If you're running 5-10 properties through the workbook before pulling the trigger, the $20 upgrade pays for itself the first time the stress test catches a deal that looked good on paper.

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WHY THIS PAYS FOR ITSELF ON ONE PROPERTY
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A 3-bed cabin in Gatlinburg: $485K, 25% down, $35K rehab, $25K furnishing. ADR $285, stabilized 68%.

The Lite returns: stabilized cash-on-cash 10.0%, DSCR 1.41, ✅ DEAL.

That answer in 10 minutes — versus an AirDNA $40 query plus a half-day of cobbled spreadsheet work — is the math. The first deal you pass on (or buy) using this template returns the price thousands of times over. The second deal you analyze covers the upgrade to Full.

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WHO IT'S FOR
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- Side-Hustle Sam scaling to property #2 or #3 — needs a fast yes/no without firing up AirDNA
- Semi-Pro Sarah evaluating acquisitions — runs this 5-10 times across listings before pulling the trigger
- New investors validating their first deal alongside the Cost-to-Launch workbook
- Anyone who has ever bought a property based on AirDNA median occupancy and wishes they had stress-tested it

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HOW IT WORKS
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1. Purchase → instant download
2. Open Property. Address, type, beds, baths, key amenities. 2 minutes
3. Open Market. Paste ADR from AirDNA or enter manually. 3 nearby comp ADRs. Stabilized occupancy. 3 minutes
4. Open Costs. 15 cost lines — most pre-defaulted. 3 minutes
5. Open Finance. Price, down %, rate, term, closing, rehab, furnishing. 1 minute
6. Open Verdict. Read the verdict. Read the math. Decide.

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FAQ
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Does it pull live AirDNA data?
No. AirDNA is a paid API and not legally re-distributable inside an Excel template. You paste ADR and occupancy from AirDNA (or your own comp work) into the Market tab. The workbook handles every other calculation.

What's the difference between Y1 and stabilized cash flow?...