Rental Property Investor · Palo Alto, CA · Member since 2026 · 42 posts · 22 votes
5mo
Hi Melinda,
This is a really good question—because most deals don’t fail on the base-case numbers, they fail when a couple assumptions shift at the same time.
When I stress test a deal, I usually focus less on precision and more on pressure points—things like:
higher vacancy than expected
rent coming in slightly below comps
higher operating / maintenance costs
tighter financing than assumed
delays or overruns on CapEx
Basically trying to see where the deal starts to break, not just where it looks good.
What I’ve found is that a lot of newer investors (and honestly even experienced ones) tend to anchor on a single / positive versions of the deal, instead of how quickly it degrades when assumptions move.
I’ve just been using a simple system I put together to quickly run different scenarios so I’m not stuck looking at a single version of the deal.