BnbCalc: A Review
Finding your next Airbnb rental investment can be a long and grueling process, from researching short-term rental regulations to finding the perfect property.
If you’ve been in the game long enough, sometimes it can become almost like instinct, where your gut tells you that a specific property is going to do well. However, nothing really beats good old-fashioned rules of thumb. BNBCalc is here to help you make informed decisions through a slew of metrics and data presented in an easily digestible manner.
Why We Love It
Built With Hosts in Mind
BNBCalc’s founders are seasoned Airbnb hosts (30 listings and growing). This helps them better understand how the mind of an investor works, what they’ll be looking for in an Airbnb analysis, what information is helpful in making decisions, and how the data should be presented.
The BNBCalc platform embodies an authentic host-driven design that sets it apart from other property analysis tools. The overall interface reflects the team’s first-hand experience in real estate investments, making the platform easy to use where everything flows so well.
Profitability Snapshot
When you’re eyeing a new rental property, one of the things that’s always going to be on the top of your mind is, “How much am I going to make from this investment?” That’s just how a business-minded individual thinks.
BNBCalc helps you answer that question the instant you run an analysis. At the top of every property report, an Airbnb Investor Score is displayed. This includes the major financial metrics such as Annual Profit, Cap Rate, and Cash on Cash. It also includes an overall score, where the higher the number, the higher your potential profits could be on any given property.
While it’s worth noting that this Airbnb Investor Score should never be used as the main driving factor in a purchasing decision, it’s still a great feature that provides a snapshot of a property’s potential profitability. It works best as a stepping-off point - whether it’s worth diving deeper into a property or not.
Presentable and Shareable
Team coordination within big projects like investing in a new rental property is critical. The best properties won’t be in the market for long, so quick and easy communication is key. Well, BNBCalc allows users to send and share analyses with ease.
From shareable links to physical printouts, the platform ensures your analysis looks polished, whether viewed on an iPhone or computer. With just a few clicks, you can send a link to the finished analysis, allowing your team or cohost to evaluate a property in moments. Alternatively, BNBCalc also offers the ability to print out physical copies of the same report. This is a great way to show it off to potential clients, other team members, potential owners, or even present in a meeting. Printer, ink, and paper are not included!
Adding to the presentability and professionalism, BNBCalc also includes options to insert custom branding, realtor cards, business information, and more.
Financial Summary and Initial Investment
BNBCalc provides a snapshot of your initial investment figures, showing you exactly how much cash you’ll need to spend on a down payment, on renovations, and toward your closing costs. It also allows you to calculate financial metrics, such as expenses, taxes, and more, in a simple, editable format, giving you the freedom to explore different scenarios and continue using the analysis even after you start operating.
Return Metrics
Want to figure out how your rental property will hold up in the future? BNBCalc has a simple built-in tool that shows you how your property and revenue will hold up, from a year to 10 years in the future. It comes complete with graphs and tables, transforming the appreciation statistics into easily digestible data. It also provides expected Cash on Cash, Cap Rate, and ROI for different timelines.
Long-Term Rental and Section 8 Data
Rental real estate investments don’t always have to become Airbnbs. While BNBCalc obviously puts a major focus on short-term rentals, it’s always good to have options. This is why their long-term rental and section 8 data are just as solid as their short-term rental metrics.
Having the ability to see short-term and long-term rental data in one analysis makes it easy to compare your options and weigh the pros and cons of each before pulling the trigger. This extra data provides insights into potential options that investors can take in case short-term rentals aren’t going to cut it.
Standout Features
Airbnb Calculator - Property Analysis Tool
BNBCalc’s main feature is the Airbnb calculator. It’s a property analysis tool that provides financial metrics of a specific property’s potential as a short-term rental. It makes use of historical data from nearby comparable properties to create realistic estimations of the returns a potential investor can expect.
A user can analyze a property by entering the address and filling out the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, maximum guests, and purchase price. The tool can also automatically import data via Zillow links, making it incredibly easy to analyze properties that are already in the market.
The report includes adjustable sliders for occupancy and daily rates, seasonality, up to 40 comparables, a profit calculator, a cash investment calculator, property appreciation, and more. All of this is packaged in a user-friendly and easily digestible format.
Customizable Reports
BNBCalc empowers professionals with customizable reporting, providing a more professional and presentable form of the data. Users can:
- Embed personal branding
- Add business contact information
- Insert a custom "about me" section
- Add a digital realtor card
- Generate printable reports for client presentations
- Choose to hide or include specific sections within the report
Benchmarking Comparables
A good investor knows how important benchmarking can be to help decide how much a rental property can make. BNBCalc offers a flexible comparables section of up to 40 properties, complete with information on revenue, amenities, and house type.
It allows users to hand-pick specific filters, narrowing down the comparables to something that closely resembles their rental property. It also updates the annual revenue, occupancy, and nightly rate, averaging out the comps that fit the standards they’ve set and providing a better financial picture from real-world historical data.
Rental Property Tax Calculator
Calculating property taxes can be a drag for pretty much anyone, even with an aid of a tax guide, especially when it comes to the taxes associated with your rental. BNBCalc’s Rental Tax Calculator simplifies the process by generating quick estimates for potential taxes and deductions, covering income, tax savings, interest, and depreciation.
With just a few inputs, you’ll see a clear breakdown of your tax obligations, saving you time and stress. This is especially helpful if you’re tapping into the STR tax loophole, helping you keep your taxes in check and properly claim those deductions. Keep in mind it currently only supports US tax laws but offers support for both short-term and long-term rentals.
Long-Term Rental Property Calculator
BNBCalc also aggregates long-term rental comparables from top providers (Rentrange and zillow). The analysis shows up to 15 long-term rental comparables usind data from the last 5 years. At a glance, it shows rental prices, square footage, property type, and number of beds and baths, among others, painting a picture of the area’s LTR market. You can also download a full long-term rental report that goes more in-depth with price changes, rental trends, benchmarks, and more.
Section 8/ FMR Map
BNBCalc’s Section 8/Fair Market Rents Map is a convenient way to explore potential rental returns. Organized by zip code and bedroom count, it shows the government-set rent standards for up to four-bedroom properties. This quick reference helps Airbnb hosts and long-term rental owners compare Section 8 possibilities, guiding their decisions on pricing and the potential of their new investments.
Shortcomings That Don’t Spoil the Show
Something that keen-eyed investors might notice is the lack of a market-level view of properties within specific areas. This is something that other Airbnb calculators like AirDNA or even Airbtics have. These maps provide a more snapshot-like view of the current state of a specific rental market.
However, most investors are looking for specific markets near them. The information isn’t going to be helpful when deciding your success. A good Airbnb host can succeed even in some of the worst markets with good amenities and pricing. Regardless of a market’s state, profitable opportunities can still arise for those who know what they are doing.
Who This is For
Since the founders of BNBCalc are Airbnb hosts and STR investors, it’s clear that BNBCalc is perfect for people with similar interests in mind. It provides access to crucial analytics and metrics that can easily help investors make data-driven decisions. However, BNBCalc’s use cases aren’t limited to just Airbnb hosts and short-term rental investors. Realtors and agents can make use of the platform to further sell their clients or better market houses. Co-hosts and property managers can also use it in their pitches or partnership decisions. Of course, other rental investors can also make use of the data BNBCalc provides to fuel their long-term or Section 8 plans.
The Bottom Line
As a whole, BNBCalc is one of the top platforms for running a rental property analysis in the market. With its comprehensive tools, intuitive design, and excellent data, it helps narrow the gap between guesstimations and potential real-world numbers, providing the perfect fuel for financial analyses and decision-making processes. Whether you’re a short-term rental investor looking to add to their portfolio or a realtor or property manager looking to sell a pitch, BNBCalc backs you up and gives you confidence through its reliable rental data.
