Glossary

89+ plain-English definitions for the terms and figures you'll see across strve and short-term rental investing generally, matched to how this app actually calculates each one where applicable. Check short-term rental rules by city or run the numbers on Property Analysis to see these terms applied to a real property.

Revenue basics

ADR (average daily rate): The average nightly price a short-term rental books for. Expected annual gross revenue is roughly ADR × 365 × occupancy rate.
Occupancy rate: The share of nights in a year the property is booked, expressed as a percentage (e.g. 65%). Combined with ADR, it drives gross revenue.
Gross revenue: Total booking income before any expenses or debt service are subtracted: ADR × nights booked per year.
Revenue band (worst / expected / best): A three-point range around a revenue estimate (typically ±20%) instead of a single point number, used to show how sensitive a deal is to the ADR/occupancy estimate being off.

Operating profitability

NOI (net operating income): Gross revenue minus operating expenses (property tax, insurance, utilities, cleaning, HOA, maintenance, capex reserve, management fee), but before mortgage debt service.
Net cash flow: NOI minus annual debt service (mortgage principal + interest). This is what actually lands in your pocket each year, unlike gross revenue.
Cap rate: NOI divided by purchase price, a leverage-free measure of how much a property yields regardless of how it was financed.
Cash-on-cash return: Annual net cash flow divided by cash invested (down payment + closing costs). Unlike cap rate, this reflects your actual financing and out-of-pocket cost.
DSCR (debt service coverage ratio): NOI divided by annual debt service. Above 1.0 means the property’s operating income covers the mortgage payment; lenders often require a minimum DSCR to approve a loan. Shows as N/A for all-cash purchases with no debt service.
Expense ratio: Operating expenses divided by gross revenue, i.e. what share of every booking dollar goes to running the property, before debt service.
Gross rent multiplier (GRM): Purchase price divided by gross annual revenue, a quick, expense-blind screening ratio; lower generally means cheaper relative to income.
Debt yield: NOI divided by loan amount, a lender-facing risk metric independent of interest rate, used alongside DSCR to gauge how much cushion the loan has.
Break-even occupancy: The occupancy rate, at the current ADR, where annual cash flow hits exactly zero. Anything above it is profit, below it is a loss.
Break-even ADR: The nightly rate, at the current occupancy, where annual cash flow hits exactly zero, a floor for how low your pricing can go before the deal loses money.

Scores (0-100, from the Property Analysis / ranking agent)

Investment score: A single 0-100 composite blending cash-flow, appreciation, regulatory outlook, and risk (weighted by your investor profile). Drives the BUY/WATCH/REJECT recommendation. BUY additionally requires the deal to have positive net cash flow, no matter how high the score is otherwise.
STRVE Score: Our short-term rental regulation score: a 0-100 rating of how friendly the property’s current state/county/town/HOA short-term-rental rules are today, as researched by the regulation agent. Higher is more permissive.
Regulatory outlook score: The STRVE Score adjusted for the direction rules are heading (tightening, stable, or loosening). A currently-friendly area trending toward a ban scores worse here than an equally-friendly area with stable rules.
Appreciation score: How the property’s local market appreciation forecast compares to a strong benchmark, based on the 5-year annualized appreciation estimate from the appreciation agent.
Risk score: How risky the deal is overall (higher = riskier), as assessed by the risk agent from factors like market volatility, insurance/climate exposure, and concentration. Inverted when folded into the investment score, since lower risk is better.

Scenario & sensitivity analysis

Sensitivity grid: A deterministic table of annual cash flow across a range of ADR (±30%) and occupancy (±20 points) combinations, shown as a heatmap. Answers "how much room for error does this deal have?" without re-running a full analysis.
Scenario comparison (worst / expected / best): Three full financial + long-term projections run side by side using the worst/expected/best revenue band, so you can see how cap rate, IRR, and total profit move together under each case rather than just cash flow alone.
Staleness: How long ago a regulation lookup was last verified. A stale result (typically 90+ days old) still displays, with a banner recommending a fresh check, since rules can change faster than a previously verified answer.

STR regulation & permits

STR permit: Government authorization required in many cities/counties to legally operate a short-term rental, separate from a business license, and often capped in number or tied to a specific property.
STR license: A recurring (often annual) registration a jurisdiction requires to operate an STR, sometimes bundled with a permit, sometimes separate. Renewal can be denied if a property racks up too many complaints.
Zoning ordinance: Local law dictating what a property can be used for by its zoning district. Some residential zones simply prohibit short-term rentals outright regardless of permit availability.
Conditional use permit (CUP): A discretionary approval some jurisdictions require before an STR is allowed in a zone that doesn’t permit it by right. Typically involves a public hearing and can be revoked.
Owner-occupancy requirement: A rule requiring the host to live on-site (or in the primary residence) for some portion of the year, common in cities trying to curb whole-home investor-owned STRs.
Non-owner-occupied STR: A short-term rental where the owner doesn’t live on the property. The investment model this app is built around, and the one most likely to be restricted or capped where owner-occupancy rules exist.
STR density cap: A limit on how many short-term rental permits a jurisdiction issues per block, neighborhood, or building. Once the cap is hit, new applications go on a waitlist or are denied outright.
Grandfathering: A provision letting STRs that were already permitted/operating before a new, stricter rule take effect keep operating under the old rule, a key reason two similar-looking properties on the same block can have very different legal status.
Moratorium: A temporary freeze on issuing new STR permits/licenses while a jurisdiction studies or rewrites its regulations. Existing permits are usually unaffected, but new ones can’t be obtained until it lifts.
Registration number: A permit/license identifier a jurisdiction requires to be posted on every listing (Airbnb/Vrbo) for that address. Platforms increasingly delist unregistered properties automatically in regulated cities.
Transient occupancy tax (TOT): A hotel-style tax on short-term stays (often 5-15% of the nightly rate) collected from guests and remitted to the local government, distinct from, and in addition to, ordinary income tax on rental profit.
HOA short-term rental restriction: A homeowners association rule (separate from city/county law) banning or limiting STRs, minimum-stay length, or the number of rentals per year. Can make a property illegal to STR even where local government fully permits it.
Master HOA vs. condo/sub-association: Some properties sit under two layers of association rules at once: a building/subdivision-level condo or sub-association, and a broader master HOA above it. Where both exist, the regulation agent reports whichever layer is more restrictive, since either one can independently ban or limit STRs.
Deed restriction / CC&Rs: A rental restriction written into a subdivision’s recorded covenants, conditions & restrictions (CC&Rs) rather than an HOA’s bylaws. Neighboring lot owners can enforce it directly, and it can remain in force even if the HOA itself dissolves. Distinct from, and reported separately from, an HOA restriction.
Township / borough: A municipal government structure that goes by a different regional name (township in much of the Northeast/Midwest, borough in parts of the Northeast and Alaska). This is the same “town” jurisdiction level the regulation agent already reports, not a separate one.
Special district / STR overlay zoning: A resort or tourism-improvement district, or an STR-specific zoning overlay, that layers extra permit, tax, or cap rules on top of a property’s base town/county zoning. Reported as its own jurisdiction level since it can be more restrictive than the underlying zoning.
Platform city agreement: A direct arrangement between a booking platform (Airbnb/Vrbo) and a city, often requiring a registration number on every listing, remitting occupancy tax automatically on the host’s behalf, or delisting unregistered units outright. A contract term rather than a law, but scored the same 0-100 way (higher is more permissive) as the other jurisdiction levels.
Regulatory trend: The direction a jurisdiction’s STR rules are heading (tightening, stable, or loosening), based on recent legislative activity, distinct from how permissive the rules are today.
Good neighbor policy: A code of conduct (noise, trash, parking, occupancy limits) some jurisdictions require hosts to post and enforce as a condition of keeping their STR permit.

Deal-sourcing & STR operations

MLS (Multiple Listing Service): The database real estate agents use to list properties for sale, the primary source for on-market deals, as opposed to off-market ones.
Comp (comparable): A recently sold or currently listed property similar enough in location/size/condition to help estimate a target property’s fair value.
Off-market deal: A property for sale that isn’t listed on the MLS, sourced through direct outreach, wholesalers, or word of mouth, often with less price competition.
Turnkey property: A property that’s already renovated, furnished, and ready to list as an STR with no additional work. Commands a price premium over a comparable fixer.
Buy-and-hold: An investment strategy of purchasing a property to rent and hold for cash flow and appreciation, as opposed to a fix-and-flip resale strategy.
Rental arbitrage: Operating an STR in a property you lease (not own) from a landlord who has approved subletting as a short-term rental. Lower capital required, but no equity/appreciation upside and the arrangement can be terminated by the landlord.
House hacking: Living in part of a property (e.g. one unit of a duplex, or a spare bedroom) while renting the rest short-term to offset your own mortgage payment.
Co-hosting: Paying another operator a percentage of revenue to manage day-to-day guest communication, cleaning coordination, and pricing on your behalf.
Seasonality: Predictable within-year swings in ADR and occupancy driven by climate, school calendars, and local events. A market’s summer ADR can be 2-3x its winter ADR.
Dynamic pricing: Software-driven, automatic nightly-rate adjustment based on demand signals (day of week, local events, lead time, comp pricing) rather than a single fixed rate.
Minimum stay requirement: A rule (set by the host, the platform, or local law) requiring guests to book at least N consecutive nights. Some jurisdictions mandate a multi-night minimum specifically to discourage party rentals.
Channel manager: Software that syncs a listing’s calendar, pricing, and content across multiple booking platforms (Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com) so a change on one updates all of them.
PMS (property management system): Software handling reservations, guest messaging, cleaning scheduling, and reporting across one or more STR properties. The operational backbone once you own more than a property or two.
Cleaning fee: A per-stay charge passed to the guest to cover turnover cleaning cost. Set too low and it erodes margin; too high and it hurts conversion, since guests see it in the total price.
Platform service fee: The commission a booking platform (Airbnb, Vrbo) takes from a reservation, typically a host-side percentage, sometimes also a separate guest-side fee, that reduces gross revenue before it ever reaches the host.

Financing terms

LTV (loan-to-value): Loan amount divided by property value, the inverse of your down payment percentage. Higher LTV means less equity cushion and often a higher interest rate.
DTI (debt-to-income ratio): A borrower’s total monthly debt payments divided by gross monthly income, a standard underwriting check for conventional mortgages (distinct from a DSCR loan, which skips it).
Discount points: Upfront fees paid at closing (each point = 1% of loan amount) to buy down the mortgage interest rate, a trade of cash now for lower payments over the loan term.
PMI (private mortgage insurance): Insurance a lender requires on a conventional loan with less than 20% down, protecting the lender (not the borrower) if the loan defaults. Adds to the monthly payment until enough equity builds up.
Amortization: The schedule by which a loan’s fixed monthly payment splits between interest and principal over its term. Early payments are mostly interest, later ones mostly principal.
ARM (adjustable-rate mortgage): A mortgage with an interest rate that resets periodically after an initial fixed period, as opposed to staying fixed for the full term: lower initial rate, more payment uncertainty later.
Seller financing: A purchase where the seller acts as the lender, carrying a note instead of the buyer getting a bank mortgage. Can bypass traditional underwriting entirely, terms negotiated deal by deal.
Hard money loan: A short-term, asset-based loan from a private lender, priced higher than a bank mortgage but funded faster and with looser qualification. Common for a fast close or a property needing renovation before it can be refinanced.
HELOC (home equity line of credit): A revolving credit line secured by equity in a property you already own, a common way to fund a down payment on the next acquisition without a cash-out refinance.
Cash-out refinance: Replacing an existing mortgage with a larger one and taking the difference in cash, a way to pull equity out of an appreciated property to fund another purchase.
Escrow: A neutral third-party account holding funds (earnest money during a purchase, or ongoing tax/insurance reserves during a loan) until contractual conditions are met.
Appraisal: A licensed professional’s independent estimate of a property’s value, required by lenders before funding a mortgage. A low appraisal relative to the purchase price can force a renegotiation or a bigger down payment.
1031 exchange: A tax provision letting an investor defer capital gains tax on a sold property by reinvesting the proceeds into a similar (“like-kind”) property within strict IRS timelines.
DSCR loan: An investor-focused mortgage product underwritten primarily on the property’s own DSCR rather than the borrower’s personal income/DTI, common for STR purchases held in an LLC.

Long-term projection

Cash invested: Down payment + closing costs, the amount of your own money tied up at purchase, used as the denominator for cash-on-cash and equity multiple.
IRR (internal rate of return): The annualized rate of return across the whole hold period, accounting for the timing of every cash flow (initial investment, yearly after-tax cash flow, and sale proceeds): the single best "what did I actually earn" number for a multi-year hold.
NPV (net present value): The projected cash flow stream discounted back to today at your chosen discount rate, minus cash invested. Positive means the deal is expected to beat that discount rate; negative means it isn’t.
Equity multiple: Total cash received over the hold (yearly cash flow + net sale proceeds) divided by cash invested. A 2.0x means you got back twice what you put in, ignoring the time value of money (unlike IRR).
Total profit: Total cash received over the hold minus cash invested, the raw dollar profit, not annualized or discounted.
Exit equity: Projected property value at the end of the hold period minus the remaining loan balance: what you’d walk away with in equity if you sold at that point (before selling costs and taxes).

Projection assumptions (Long-term assumptions panel)

Hold years: How many years you plan to own the property before the projection assumes a sale.
Rent growth: Annual percentage growth applied to gross revenue each year of the hold.
Expense growth: Annual percentage growth applied to operating expenses each year of the hold.
Appreciation rate: Annual percentage growth applied to the property’s value, used to project the exit sale price.
Selling costs: Percentage of the exit sale price assumed to go to agent commissions and closing costs when you sell.
Marginal tax rate: Your ordinary income tax rate, applied to taxable rental income and to depreciation recapture at sale.
Capital gains tax rate: The tax rate applied to the capital-gain portion of your profit at sale (separate from depreciation recapture).
Depreciation recapture rate: The tax rate applied to the accumulated depreciation you claimed over the hold, recaptured when you sell.
Land value %: The share of the purchase price assumed to be land (non-depreciable) rather than the building. Only the building portion is depreciated.
Discount rate: The rate used to discount future cash flows back to today’s dollars when computing NPV, typically your required rate of return or cost of capital.

Portfolio status

Candidate: A saved analysis you’re still evaluating, the default status when you save a deal from Property Analysis.
Watchlist: A saved analysis you want to keep tracking but haven’t committed to yet.
Owned: A saved analysis for a property you’ve actually purchased. Owned snapshots feed the Portfolio rollup (total cash flow, blended cash-on-cash, total exit equity). Status is per saved snapshot, not per physical address.

Put these terms to work

Run the numbers on a real property, or check the rules before you buy.

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