Affordability Calculator: Step-by-Step Guide

Summary

The Affordability Calculator helps you quickly and simply determine how much home your client can afford, using either their income or a target monthly payment. To get started, enter your client's financial details to instantly see their estimated affordable home price and loan amount, along with a full payment breakdown you can review together and share.

Navigating to the Affordability Calculator

You can find your Affordability Calculator within Client Manager and within the Calculator tab of the left-hand navigation menu.

Navigating through the Client Manager

Client Manager allows you to create reports for your clients using previously saved loan and property details, saving you time when building new scenarios.

Navigating through the left-hand sidebar menu

To access the Affordability Calculator using the left-hand sidebar menu, click Calculators, then click Affordability.

💡 Helpful Tip: You can favorite the Affordability Calculator by clicking the star next to its name, so it's easier to find next time.

How to Create an Affordability Scenario

The Affordability Calculator opens with example values already filled in, which you can edit to match your client's actual scenario. As you make changes, the results update automatically. Follow the steps below to tailor it to your client's particular scenario:

(Optional) Choose a Client from the drop-down, or select + Add new to add a new client.

Select Income to calculate affordability based on your client's income, or Payment to calculate it based on a target monthly payment.

Enter the property Location by typing an address, city, county, or ZIP code. The calculator will automatically pre-fill with generic information, but this information is editable.
In Income mode, enter Annual Income. In Payment mode, enter their Desired Monthly Payment (PITI).
Enter the client's likely loan scenario including Down Payment, Term, Loan Program (Conventional, FHA, USDA, and VA), Rate, APR, Closing Costs (defaulted to 3% of home price), Monthly Mortgage Insurance (dollar or percentage).

💡 Helpful Tip: Your scenario saves automatically to the client's record as you work. Look for the “Scenario saved” timestamp at the top of the page.

Adjusting Advanced Inputs (Optional)

Expand Advanced Inputs to fine-tune a scenario beyond the default estimates. Each of the following fields can be edited directly, and many include a Reset to default (or Reset to county avg. rate) link if you want to return to the calculator's estimate:

DTI Ratio
Monthly Obligations
Monthly Home Insurance
Monthly Association Fee
Monthly Repairs
Property Tax, toggle between Monthly/Annual and $/%

💡 Helpful Tip: The DTI Ratio (Debt-to-Income ratio, also known as back ratio) is the sum of your client's monthly obligations, insurance, taxes, and other expenses, divided by their income.

Understanding Your Results

The Total Monthly Payment card breaks the payment down into Principal & Interest, Taxes & Insurance, Association Fee, and Maintenance Fee.

The Total Cash to Close card breaks down the Down Payment, Closing Costs, and Prepaid & Escrows.

💡 Helpful Tip: When using the Income toggle, a COMFORTABLE badge and DTI Ratio appear next to the estimated home price, so you can flag at a glance whether a scenario is likely to qualify.

Scroll down to the Details section for a full summary of the Finances (Annual Income, Monthly Obligations, DTI Ratio) and Loan (Term, Program, Rate, APR, Total Monthly Payment, Total Cash to Close) used in the scenario.

Adding Co-branding for Referral Partner

You can also add a referral partner's co-branding on your report. To learn more about co-branding, click here.

Click + Add under Co-Branding, in the lower left of the input panel.

Use the Co-branding drop-down to select an agent.
- If the agent's co-branding is not saved and available in the drop-down, click + Add new co-branding partner.

Select either Display left or Display right to determine how you want the co-branding displayed on the report footer.

Click Save.

Resetting a Scenario

Click Reset Calculator in the top left of the page to clear your entries and return all fields to their defaults.

Sharing your Report

Once you've created your Appreciation Calculator report and made any necessary edits, it’s time to review and share your report. To share the completed report, click Share. A dropdown menu will appear.

Click Download to download the report as a PDF.
Click Send a link via email with an optional video recording (not available for some users depending on their company permission settings).
Click Host a meeting to virtually meet to discuss the report with your client.
Click Record a Video to provide your client with a clear walkthrough of the report along with your own insights and context.

To learn more about sharing your report, click here.

💡 Helpful Tip: When your client opens their Live Share link, you'll automatically receive an email letting you know they viewed their report.

Need Help?

Have questions or want to learn more? Submit a ticket or call us today!

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