IRR, ROI, Equity Multiple & Cash-on-Cash

DealWorthIt shows several return metrics side by side because each answers a different question. This guide explains what each one measures, how it's computed here, and the conventions that matter when you compare deals — or compare DealWorthIt to other tools.

Cash-on-cash — "what does my cash earn per year?"

A year's cash-on-cash divides that year's cash flow by your total cash invested including planned capital expenditures — down payment, closing costs, and capex, not just the down payment. That capex-inclusive denominator makes the figure honest but sometimes lower than a "down-payment-only" cash-on-cash from other sources.

Two flavors appear in the detailed model: the per-year figure, and Avg Cash on Cash — the hold-period average (total cash-on-cash across the hold divided by the years held). The average is the one your Buying Targets and Maximum Purchase Price use, because a single hot year shouldn't pass a whole deal.

Equity multiple — "how many times do I get my money back?"

The deal equity multiple is total cash returned ÷ total cash invested over the whole hold — every year's distributions plus refinance and net sale proceeds, against everything you put in. A 2.0x means the deal returned twice your cash. What it deliberately ignores is time: a 2.0x in three years and a 2.0x in ten years read identically. That's IRR's job — never read an equity multiple as an annualized return.

One display nuance: the year-by-year projections can show a "Return Multiple (1 + ROI)" — a cumulative per-year figure that is labeled separately and is not the whole-hold equity multiple.

IRR — "what rate does the timing imply?"

IRR estimates the annualized return implied by the size and timing of your cash flows. DealWorthIt builds an annual series — your cash invested up front, each year's distributions, refinance proceeds in the refi year, and net sale proceeds at exit (the same stream that sums to the equity multiple) — and solves for the rate that discounts it to zero. Money returned sooner counts for more, which is why a refinance that returns capital early can lift IRR without changing the equity multiple much.

ROI — "it depends on the strategy"

There is no single "DealWorthIt ROI formula," because ROI only means something relative to the right investment base — and that base differs by strategy:

• Fix & Flip: ROI (and its equity multiple) is computed on cash invested — total project cost minus the financed amount — not on total project cost. The annualized version depends on your project duration.
• Wholesale: the displayed ROI is the end buyer's, on their all-in basis (contract + your fee + their costs). Your own return is the assignment fee.
• Buy & Hold: leads with cash flow, cap rate, cash-on-cash, and DSCR; an equity multiple is deliberately not shown because the single-year snapshot has no multi-year hold and exit to build one from.
• Multifamily / Self Storage detailed: the whole-deal story is told by IRR, equity multiple, and cash-on-cash rather than one generic ROI.

Which metric answers which question

• IRR — speed-weighted: how hard your money worked per year, given when it came back.
• Equity multiple — magnitude: how much money the deal actually made, regardless of speed.
• Cash-on-cash — yield: what the cash you put in earns while you hold.
• ROI — strategy-specific profit against the applicable base (see above).

They answer different questions, so read them together: a high IRR with a modest multiple is usually a quick, small win; a big multiple with a modest IRR is a long compounding hold. Which trade-off you prefer is your call — that's what your Buying Targets encode.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Comparing cash-on-cash across tools without checking the denominator. Here it includes capex; many back-of-envelope versions don't.
• Reading the per-year Return Multiple as the deal equity multiple. Different, labeled figures.
• Treating a wholesale ROI as your own return. It's the buyer's; yours is the fee.