Free tools
Run the numbers before you sign anything.
Small calculators that answer the questions a listing site won't. No account, no email wall, nothing stored — open one, get your number, close the tab.
Available now
One tool, built properly. More below.
True Hourly Rate Calculator
Your salary is not what you earn. Once you count the commute, the unpaid hours, the parking, the clothes and the childcare, the real figure is usually well below the one on your contract — and that real figure is what a mortgage is actually paid out of.
- What one hour of your life is genuinely worth after costs
- Whether a higher-paying job further away leaves you better or worse off
- How many real hours a mortgage payment costs you each month
- What a shorter commute is worth in cash terms
In the build queue
We'd rather ship four tools that are right than twelve that are approximately right. These are what's next, in order.
Affordability Calculator
What you can borrow versus what you can comfortably carry — two very different numbers, shown side by side.
Closing Cost Estimator
The line items nobody quotes you up front, itemised so you can see which are negotiable.
Rent vs Buy
The honest version — including the years where renting genuinely wins, which most versions of this tool quietly hide.
Cap Rate & Cash-on-Cash
Two numbers every small investor quotes and half of them calculate wrong. With the formula shown, not hidden.
How these are built
A calculator is only as honest as its assumptions. Here are ours.
The formula is on the page
Every tool shows its own maths underneath the result. If you disagree with an assumption, you can see exactly which one and adjust around it.
Nothing is sold to a lender
These aren't lead-capture forms wearing a calculator costume. Your inputs stay in your browser. No email required, no broker call afterwards.
No number is a prediction
Tools estimate from what you type in. They don't forecast prices, rates, or returns — and any tool that claims to should be closed immediately.
A necessary note. These calculators produce estimates for your own planning, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Figures depend entirely on the numbers you enter and on rules that vary by country, state, and province. Before you commit money, take your result to a licensed mortgage professional, accountant, or attorney.
The tools give you a number. The book tells you what to do with it.
Real Estate, Made Readable is the plain-language field guide behind these calculators — buying, selling, renting and investing, explained the way a straight-talking friend in the business would explain them. No jargon, no hype, no market predictions.
Working in the industry rather than buying for yourself? The Complete Operator's Library is the five-playbook set.