San Diego 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 San Diego report and its dated sources

The local assumption to investigate

On an illustrative $2,500 monthly lease, how much does a free-rent offer reduce annual income?

Hypothetical gross annual income for one unit, before vacancy and operating expenses. These are not measured neighborhood rents or NOI. One free month lowers first-year effective rent to about $2,292 per month; two lower it to about $2,083.

Checks for this market

Verify San Diego city tenant protections separately from the rules in other county municipalities.
Compare executed effective rents for the same bedroom count; an average skewed toward larger or newer units is not a renewal assumption.
Obtain tax and insurance estimates and price immediate work before comparing a small older building with a Class A community.

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.