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Buy Home Tips

A place to prepare, not a push to purchase

Your independent homebuying notebook

Rent vs buy cash outflow

A deliberately simple cash-flow comparison. Enter complete monthly ownership costs and only nonrefundable upfront buying costs. This does not measure investment returns or net worth.

Use the same period and property scenario throughout. Required fields can contain zero, but no quote is supplied for you.

Worksheet total

Complete the sheet to see this scenario.

Assumptions to check

Rent outflow = monthly renter costs × months. Buyer outflow = monthly ownership costs × months + upfront nonrefundable costs. Excludes down-payment cash tied up, home equity, appreciation, rent increases, sale proceeds, opportunity cost and tax effects. A lower outflow is not necessarily the better financial decision.