See what a property has returned you, and where the return came from

Your property page can tell you how much a property has grown your equity since you bought it, and split that growth into the three things that caused it. Everything here is an estimate for planning, not financial advice.

Where to find it

Open a property, go to Financials, and look under the profit and loss figures for Where your equity came from.

Availability

This needs the wealth platform setting turned on for your account, and a Pro or higher plan. If you cannot see the section, one of those two is missing. Ask a Wealthru admin about the setting.

What it tells you

You get one sentence, for example:

Equity grew $14,200. $9,100 market, $4,300 principal, $800 cash flow.

The three parts always add up exactly to the total, and each of them traces to something you can check against your own records:

• Market value is what the property is worth now compared with what it was worth at the start of the window. It comes from your recorded valuations.
• Mortgage paydown is how much smaller your mortgage balance is. Every dollar of principal you paid is a dollar of equity you own. If you refinanced upward, this is negative, and we show it as negative rather than hiding it.
• Cash flow is rent received less posted expenses over the same window.

Below the sentence you also get Total return (the gain measured against what the property cost you) and, when the window is long enough, the same figure per year.

What the numbers mean, precisely

• The window runs from your recorded closing date to today, and the header says "Since" and the month. If you never entered a closing date, it covers the last five years instead and the header says "Last 5 years" rather than naming a purchase month you did not give us. If you sold the property, the window ends at the sale and the header says so.
• Cost basis is your purchase price plus capital improvements. It is deliberately not your down payment. A return on the down payment is a much bigger number and a different question, so putting it here under the label "total return" would mislead you.
• A very short window has no yearly rate. A 3% gain over three weeks is arithmetically 68% a year and completely meaningless, so we show the total only and say why.
• This is not an IRR. An IRR is a single rate that cannot be split into market, principal and cash flow, and the split is the whole point of this section.
• It is not risk adjusted, not tax adjusted, and not a benchmark. It says what happened, not whether you beat an index.

If something is missing

A missing figure is never shown as $0, because $0 would read as "it did not move". Instead the section tells you what to add:

• No purchase price on record. You get the dollar amounts but no percentage, because there is nothing to measure the gain against. Add it under Purchase and mortgage, further down the same Financials tab.
• No valuation on record. The market row says "No valuation" and there is a link straight to the Valuation section. Adding one valuation is enough to start.
• No mortgage history. The principal row says so, with a link to the Mortgage section.

If you co-own the property

Every dollar shown is your share, and the sentence says so, for example "These are your 40% share." Your percentage return is the same as every other owner's, because the amount you paid is scaled by your share too.

In your monthly email

If your account has the wealth platform on and is Pro or higher, your monthly recap email carries the same sentence for one of your properties, under Where your equity came from. It is the same calculation as the screen, so the two can never disagree. Property managers do not receive it, the same way they do not receive your equity figures.

Good to know

• Every figure comes from data you recorded. Nothing is invented.
• Cash flow is only as complete as your ledger. If you have not entered your expenses, this part will look better than reality.
• These are estimates for planning. For advice on a sale, a refinance, or your taxes, talk to a professional.