Summary
Show clients the financial opportunity in homeownership by using Buy vs Rent to compare their estimated monthly payments for renting or buying, and provide an estimate of future appreciation, as well as the potential tax savings that come with homeownership.
Navigating to the Buy vs Rent Report
Create a Buy vs Rent Report for your client using Client Manager. Follow the steps below to learn how:
1. Click Client Manager in the left navigation.
Note: If your client has not been added yet, click + Add Client, fill in their name and details, and click Save before continuing. To learn more about adding clients in Client Manager, click here.
2. Click + Create Report next to the corresponding client.
3. In the Create Report modal, either search for the report by name in the search bar, or select the Purchase tab and browse the list.
4. Select Buy vs Rent and click Create.
Helpful Tip: You can also search and favorite reports, tools, and calculators. Click here to learn how.
Creating your Buy vs Rent Report
To get started using the Buy vs. Rent comparison tool, follow the steps below:
- Choose which method you would like to use to compare Purchase Price, Desired Monthly Payment or Military BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing).
- Select a client by typing their name in the field below and select them from the drop-down.
- To add a new client, select + Add new from the drop-down.
- Next, fill in your client's information. Name and FICO score are required fields.
- Enter a location using an address, city, county, or ZIP code.
- Select the correct location from the drop-down list.
Depending on your selection for comparison, enter the following information:
-
Purchase Price
Purchase value of the home
-
Desired Monthly Payment
Desired monthly payment
LTV ratio
Rate
Term of Loans in years
-
Military BAH
Monthly allowance
Rate
Term of Loans in years
- Click Next.
Making Edits to Your Report
A preview of the report will be displayed. You can make adjustments to the report by clicking Edit under each of the different sections on the left-hand side of the page.
- Client: Edit your client’s name, email, FICO Score, monthly qualifying income, and debt-to-income ratio.
- Property: Edit the property's location, price, annual property tax, monthly home insurance, monthly association fee, estimated annual property tax percentage increase, estimated monthly repair costs, cost to sell, and appreciation rate.
- Renting: View and edit the monthly rent (automatically calculated based on average rent per square foot in the selected area), renter’s insurance, and the annual rent increase used in the comparison.
- Loan: View and edit loan details, including the loan amount, term, loan program and type, rate, points, mortgage insurance, closing costs, credits, prepaid items, escrows, and APR.
- Tax: View and edit estimated tax information based on filing status and standard deduction to illustrate potential tax impact of purchasing the property.
- Co-branding: Click + Add to select a referral partner and choose how the co-branding will appear on the report. Click here to learn more about co-branding.
Once you have made all of your desired edits, click Review Report in the top right-hand corner of the page to see the final report.
Sharing the Report
Once you have completed all your desired edits, click Review Report to see the final product and share the report with others. You may click the Edit button to make further adjustments. 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.
Want to Learn More?
Check out the next article, Buy vs Rent: What's Inside, to learn more about what's inside the report.