Los Angeles apartment underwriting worksheet

RentalCalcs Editorial · Reviewed October 18, 2026. Free working sheet, not an appraisal or lender form. Use your browser’s print command. Entries stay in this page and are not saved to an account; retain your own copy before closing.

Read the Los Angeles report and its dated sources

The local assumption to investigate

If annual NOI is $100,000, how much value disappears when recurring expenses exceed the buyer budget?

Illustrative expense stress, not observed Los Angeles operating costs. Hold the cap at 5.9% solely to isolate the NOI effect. Taxes, insurance and repairs are inputs to verify, not market estimates.

Checks for this market

Verify the exact municipality and whether the parcel is subject to its rent rules; LA city’s RSO is not a countywide regime.
Separate ordinary maintenance from immediate capital work and lender reserves. A new roof is not recurring NOI expense, but it still reduces the cash available to invest.
Request a buyer tax estimate and binding insurance terms; do not carry forward the seller’s historical costs.

Build the acquisition record

Property address and municipalityProperty type, unit count and rent-rule coverageSale comparables: geography, date, price and NOI conventionAnnual scheduled rentVacancy, collections and concessions (avoid double counting)Buyer operating expenses: taxes, insurance, repairs, management, utilitiesBuyer NOI = collected income minus recurring expensesPrice and going-in cap = NOI / priceLoan amount, interest, amortization and debt serviceImmediate capital work, closing costs and reservesTotal invested cash and cash flow after debt/reservesExit cap, hold period and cumulative NOI changeEvidence that would invalidate the base case

Keep observed income, hypothetical assumptions and future stabilized income separate. Cap rates exclude financing; cash-on-cash must use all invested cash. Record source dates and unresolved gaps.