1

Pick a Location. Decide where you are making the purchase and what type of property you are buying. You might want to use Zillow™ to find out the property's pricing history or look for comparable places in the area.

2

Enter pricing.What will the property cost? Are there additional costs such as maintenance or common charges? These are the things to negotiate. Click on any value to edit it.

3

Enter mortgage details.Chances are, you will be financing your purchase. Mortgage rates vary as well as the amount that can be financed and the points charged.

4

Enter appreciation and return expectations.This is guesswork, but very important. Most of the recent price inflation is due to assumptions of continuing, excessive appreciation. Historically, Real Estate has appreciated about 4.5% annually. The stock market, on the other hand, has returned around 10%. But no one is letting you buy stocks with 10% down with a 6.25% 30-year margin loan. See a difference?

5

Enter tax information.Home purchases have a special place in the tax code. You can deduct certain parts of the interest payments from your income tax, for example. Capital gains taxes will affect not only money you might make when selling your home, but also serve as a gauge for measuring how you could invest your money in assets other than a house.

6

Enter closing costs.These are often overlooked because you are buying something so expensive (which implies you have money to waste). However, based on what "type of property" you are buying and where it is located, these add up.

7

Enter selling timeframe.Thirty years is a long time. Chances are, you will sell sooner. Try to be realistic about when you are planning on selling, since the length of your investments affects the return.

8

Analyze. Finally, push the analyze button to see the results.

9

Print. Click the PDF Icon to get a complete, one-page PDF report with the results.

10

Link. Once the "LINK" words appear in the toolbar, you may drag, bookmark, or email that link to return to your analysis at any time.