Define the deal
before the deal defines you.
A buy box turns vague preferences into repeatable investment rules. BrickBasis lets you save those rules and compare every property against the same standards.
Start with what you are willing to own.
Set a maximum purchase price, property type, minimum and maximum number of doors, maximum property age and maximum upfront rehab. These filters prevent attractive-looking returns from pulling you into a property you never intended to manage.
Define what “works” financially.
Use a minimum cap rate, minimum cash-on-cash return, minimum DSCR and minimum monthly cash flow. No single metric should carry the entire decision: cap rate describes operations before debt, DSCR focuses on debt coverage, cash-on-cash measures the return on invested cash, and cash flow shows monthly breathing room.
Make room for real expenses.
Define acceptable vacancy, taxes, insurance and rehab exposure. In BrickBasis, the underlying model also lets you adjust management, repairs and CapEx, utilities, HOA and other recurring expenses before relying on the result.
Use local conditions as context, not certainty.
Job growth, population movement, appreciation history, vacancy, flood exposure and other market indicators can help identify areas that deserve more research. Historical growth is not a promise of future performance, so BrickBasis keeps these indicators separate from the property-level underwriting.
Unknown should stay unknown.
If a metric cannot be supported by a public source or your own verified input, BrickBasis marks it as missing instead of quietly inventing a value. The purpose of the buy box is consistency, not false precision.