Cardinal Company is considering a five$-$year project requiring a $$2,750,000$ investment in equipment with a useful life of five years and no salvage value. The company$$s discount rate is $18\%.$ The project would provide net operating income in each of five years as follows:

Sales$$$ $2,849,000$Variable expenses$1,122,000$Contribution margin$1,727,000$Fixed expenses:$$Advertising$,$ salaries, and other fixed out$-$of$-$pocket costs$ $752,000$Depreciation$550,000$Total fixed expenses$1,302,000$Net operating income$$$ $425,000$

Assume a postaudit showed all estimates $($including total sales$)$ were exactly correct except for the variable expense ratio, which actually turned out to be $45\%.$ What was the project$$s actual net present value?