The mandate, productised
Buy Box Builder - decide before you look
Every deal we buy passes a written mandate first - it's the discipline the whole toolkit exists to serve. Write yours here; it travels in a URL into every audit you run.
Your criteria
Your mandate
- Price≤ $850,000
- Gross yield≥ 4.50%
- After-tax holding cost≤ $150/wk
- IRR over the hold≥ 8.00%
- Vacancy assumption≤ 4 weeks/yr
Your mandate travels in the link above. The Deal Auditor that reads it is still in build - the link keeps working when it ships.
Deal Auditor - in build, not yet available
The buy box lives in the URL - bookmark it and your mandate persists; share it and a partner audits against identical criteria. No accounts, no storage.
Criteria decided in daylight beat decisions made in an auction
Every serious acquirer of property - funds, institutions, the disciplined end of private investors - writes the mandate before inspecting anything. Not because the criteria are sophisticated, but because they're pre-committed: the price ceiling was set on a quiet Tuesday, not at minute forty of an auction. The buy box turns "do I like this property?" into "does this deal clear five bars?", which is a question arithmetic can answer.
Set the IRR hurdle against your genuine alternative - what the same cash earns elsewhere - and let the Deal Auditor enforce the rest, deal after deal. The verdict is always yours: the tools judge deals against your criteria, they never recommend.
Frequently asked questions
What is a buy box in property investing?
A written set of criteria a deal must pass before you will buy it - maximum price, minimum yield, maximum weekly holding cost, minimum projected return, and whatever else your strategy demands. Institutional investors call it a mandate. Its power is that it is written before you fall in love with a property, so the decision is made by the criteria, not the emotion.
What criteria should a buy box include?
The five here are a working core: a price ceiling (your borrowing and risk limit), a gross yield floor (screens cash-poor deals), an after-tax holding cost limit (what the deal may cost you weekly under your actual tax regime), an IRR hurdle (beats your opportunity cost or why bother), and a vacancy assumption cap (stops optimistic modelling). Add strategy-specific rules - land content, distance limits, minimum land size - as your mandate matures.
What is a reasonable IRR hurdle?
Many investors set it at or above what the same cash could earn in a diversified share portfolio - often 8-10% - since taking on leverage, illiquidity and tenants for less makes little sense. Our property vs shares calculator prices that opportunity cost for your assumptions.
How do I use this buy box?
Set your criteria, then open the Deal Auditor link it generates - your buy box travels in the URL. Every deal you audit is judged against it, PASS or FAIL, including the maximum price at which the deal would pass. Bookmark the link and your mandate persists; share it and a partner sees exactly the same criteria.