Analyze Your First Rental Property Deal Before You Fall in Love With It

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Write your one-page buy box
45 min
A buy box is one page of written limits: the property type, the streets, the price band, the condition floor. You write it before touring because a fresh listing photo argues better than your spreadsheet — limits fixed in advance are the only ones that survive contact with a charming listing.
Use this layout, one line each:

Field Your limit Why
Property type
Submarket
Price band
Age / condition
Fill every Why cell. A limit without a reason is the first one you break on a Saturday afternoon.
- Pick one property type to analyze first — single-family, 2–4 unit, or condo — and write why.
- Draw submarket boundaries you can verify: named neighborhoods, ZIP codes, or a hard drive-time cap.
- Write the price band your savings and likely financing actually support, low end to high end.
- Set age and condition limits — year built, roof, HVAC, foundation — with one reason beside each.
- End the page with the rule: outside this box means no offer, no exceptions, no “but look at it”.

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