What investors look for when investing in real estate is unending cash flow. Cash flow is simply the monthly income you earn minus your monthly expenses. It is important to predict and plan for as many monthly costs as possible in order to have the most accurate comparisons.
In order words, it is the flow of consistent cash generated through an acquired property. It isn’t about doing it once and making money but doing it consistently. If you want to buy an investment property, you will need to be able to do some basic math.
As a real estate investor, you must be mathematically inclined in the way you do things. You must find out the elements that determine Real Estate cash flow for you.
Four factors that will determine the level of your cashflow in your real estate investment journey include:
1. Usability.
2. Rent.
3. The volume of apartments.
4. Frequent payment.


1. USABILITY

The worth or value of a property is based on usage and what you want to achieve with that property. A property is a lazy asset when it is not in use inspite of its appreciation value. A property’s value is in its usage. The more tenants who use the property, the more likely you’ll have customers using the property and make more profit. The questions you must ask in usability include: who is going to use this property and how many people are going to be using this property?
READ: WHY INCOME PROPERTY IS A SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENT
2. RENT

According to the business dictionary, A property rent is a property from which the owner receives payment from the occupant(s), known as tenants, in return for occupying or using the property. Rental properties may be either residential or commercial. The owner of rental property may be allowed to take certain tax deductions such as mortgage interest and depreciation.
Property usability is what will determine the rental value. The rental value of a property determines the income that will be generated from that property. So you need to ask yourself these questions;
Based on the usage, how much rent am I going to be earning on this property?
What is the margin I will place on this property based on its usage?
What is the rental value of property in this location?
3. VOLUME OF APARTMENTS

If you want to make money from real estate investment, you need to think in terms of the volume.
The question people usually ask is: what is the minimum number of apartments that I will be able to go for?
The minimum number should be at least 16 apartments. When you are at the level of 16 apartments, that is when you can be referred to as a real estate investor that ends consistent income
4. FREQUENT PAYMENT

frequency in this context refers to the number of times you get paid for your real estate asset. A real estate investor is one who makes a continuous flow of cash from real estate. A cash flow investor thinks in terms of consistency without breakage. As an investor, you should come up with a payment plan that will give you the opportunity to always get cashflow regularly on a monthly basis. Should the person pay a monthly or yearly basis? How long is this person going to stay?
What a cash flow investor focuses on is to lay a grip on the existing tenant, let them stay with you and be consistent. Then you create a convenient payment plan for the tenant where the tenant can either pay monthly or quarterly.
Conclusively, cash flow analysis is crucial to a healthy and profitable real estate investment portfolio. All real estate investors and real estate agents must be proactive in ensuring profitable returns and a good ROI before closing a deal on a rental property.
The formula for cash flow math is:
USABILITY + RENT x NUMBER OF APARTMENTS x FREQUENCY OF TRANSACTION = RENTAL CASH FLOW