Return Quadrants™
Four different ways to measure your total return — in dollars, as a percentage of investment, as a percentage of equity, and as a percentage of true net equity. Each one answers a different question about your deal.
What Is a Return Quadrant™?
Most investors only look at cash flow or cap rate. But real estate generates returns through four streams, and a Return Quadrant™ shows all four at once.
Appreciation
Your property value goes up. At 3% annual appreciation on a $500K property, that's $15,000 in Year 1.
Cash Flow
Net income after all expenses and mortgage. The money that actually hits your bank account: $2,437/yr.
Debt Paydown
Your tenants pay your mortgage for you. Each month, principal reduces your loan balance: $4,191/yr in Year 1.
Tax Benefits
Cash Flow from Depreciation™ — the tax savings from depreciation that puts real cash back in your pocket: $3,491/yr.
Add all four together and you get the total return. A property might have negative cash flow but still be an excellent investment when you count appreciation, debt paydown, and tax benefits. The Return Quadrant™ reveals the complete picture.
Four Ways to Measure Return
Each quadrant answers a different question about your investment.
RIDQ™ — Return in Dollars Quadrant™
Question: "How many dollars am I making?"
Return in Dollars Quadrant™ (RIDQ™)
Appreciation
$15,000
Cash Flow
$2,437
Debt Paydown
$4,191
Tax Benefits
$3,491
Total
$25,120
© 2026 Return in Dollars Quadrant™ from Real Estate Financial Planner LLC
The RIDQ™ shows the raw dollar amounts for each stream. It's the most intuitive view — you can see exactly how many dollars each stream contributes to your total annual return.
ROIQ™ — Return on Investment Quadrant™
Question: "What's my rate of return on cash invested?"
Return on Investment Quadrant™ (ROIQ™)
Appreciation
10.34%
Cash Flow
0.00%
Debt Paydown
2.89%
Tax Benefits
2.41%
Total ROI
17.32%
© 2026 Return on Investment Quadrant™ from Real Estate Financial Planner LLC
The ROIQ™ divides each stream by your total cash invested. It tells you what percentage return you're earning on the money you put in — the true ROI, not just cash-on-cash.
ROEQ™ — Return on Equity Quadrant™
Question: "What's my return relative to my equity position?"
ROEQ™ divides RIDQ™ by your current equity.
ROEQ™ = RIDQ™ ÷ Current Equity
As your equity grows over time (through appreciation and debt paydown), the ROEQ™ shows whether your equity is working hard enough. A declining ROEQ™ might signal it's time to refinance or redeploy equity into a new deal.
ROTNEQ™ — Return on True Net Equity™
Question: "What's my return on the equity I can actually access?"
True Net Equity™ = Equity − Cost to Access
ROTNEQ™ = RIDQ™ ÷ True Net Equity™
The most realistic equity metric. Your property equity isn't free to access — refinancing has closing costs, selling has commissions. ROTNEQ™ accounts for these costs to show your return on the equity you could actually deploy elsewhere.
View Any Year from 1 to 40
Select any year from the dropdown and all four quadrants update instantly. See how your returns evolve over time.
First year returns — still building equity and establishing cash flow.
Five years in — appreciation and debt paydown have accumulated significantly.
A decade of compounding — see the power of long-term real estate investing.
Navigate instantly. Use the year dropdown or arrow buttons to jump to any year from 1 to 40. All four quadrant boxes update in real time — no page reload needed.
Reserve-Adjusted Returns
See how setting aside reserves affects your total return. Two reserve levels are built in.
+R6 Reserves
6-month reserve at 1% rate
The conservative approach. Set aside 6 months of expenses as a reserve, earning a modest 1% return. The return on reserves is added to RIDQ™ and the reserve principal is added to total invested for ROIQ™.
+R12 Reserves
12-month reserve at 8% rate
The more aggressive approach. Set aside 12 months of expenses, invested at 8%. The higher return partially offsets the larger reserve principal added to your total investment.
Fully Customizable
Both reserve levels are configurable in the Advanced Settings section. Change the number of months, the assumed rate of return, or both. The reserve-adjusted boxes on the Return Quadrants™ tab update instantly.
How Returns Grow Over Time
Compare dollar returns (RIDQ™) and percentage returns (ROIQ™) side by side — Years 1 through 10.
Defaults to Years 1–10, but you can slide the window to view any 10-year span across the full 40-year projection.
Explore More Features
Dive deeper into what makes TWGREDAS™ the most complete deal analysis tool.
Included with All Apps
Property Database
30+ financial fields organized into 9 categories with auto-save and full change history.
Property Classification
Tag properties by investment strategy and property type. Filter and sort your entire portfolio.
Real-Time Calculations
27 key metrics across 5 categories computed instantly as you type, with clickable walkthroughs.
Portfolio Dashboard
Portfolio highlights, property cards, strategy and type breakdowns, overview charts, and cross-app features.
Included with Purchase of Deal Analyzer
Four-Stream Breakdown
See appreciation, cash flow, debt paydown, and tax benefits as both dollars (RIDQ™) and percentages (ROIQ™).
Analysis Dashboard
The TWGREDAS™ card, 6 input sections, and 9 interactive charts that update as you type.
Multi-Year Projections
Project all 80+ metrics across 40 years. See how returns compound and accelerate over time.
Override System
Click any cell to override its value. Changes cascade forward and recalculate all downstream metrics.
Scenario Modeling
Model rent bumps, tax increases, renovations, or any scenario with month-level granularity.
Amortization Schedule
480-month schedule with PMI tracking, extra principal modeling, and interactive balance charts.
Yearly Summaries
All 40 years in one table: value, rent, cash flow, equity, RIDQ™, ROIQ™, cap rate, and IRR.
IRR Tables
Internal Rate of Return before and after taxes for every year from 1 to 40.
See All Four Return Quadrants™
RIDQ™, ROIQ™, ROEQ™, and ROTNEQ™ — four perspectives on your total return, updated for every year from 1 to 40, with reserve adjustments built in.