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How to use PropertiesGPS

Short answers about filters, cash-flow math, RentCast panels, distress signals, and the AI assistant. Can't find it? Use the floating Ask NAVI button bottom-right, or contact us.

Getting started

What is PropertiesGPS?

PropertiesGPS is investor-grade real estate intelligence for Southwest Florida. It surfaces what mainstream listing sites hide: true monthly carry, hidden costs (flood, insurance, special assessments), distress signals, short-term rental upside, and seller-financing leads — across MLS, off-market, and foreclosure-auction inventory.

Where should I start?

Three quick paths: 1. **Browse Opportunities** to see ranked deals with cash-flow signals on every card. 2. **Run the Guided wizard** to capture your budget, risk tolerance, and financing preference — we then match listings to your buy box. 3. **Save homes** you want to come back to; saved items power compare, alerts, and the AI assistant.

Personas & ranking

What is a persona and why does it matter?

Your persona tells PropertiesGPS which KPI to optimize for. Pick from First-time/move-up Buyer, Long-term rental investor, Flipper, STR/Airbnb investor, Wholesaler, or Just exploring. The marketplace re-sorts every list to put properties matching your strategy on top, and the property detail page reorders panels to surface the numbers you actually use.

How do I change my persona?

Click the small persona chip in the top nav (next to your account menu) and pick a new one. Your choice is saved across devices and applied instantly — refresh isn't needed.

How does persona-aware ranking work?

Each persona has a primary KPI: Buyer = affordability tier, LTR = cash-on-cash + DSCR, Flipper = MAO gap and rehab spread, STR = projected STR revenue minus rule penalties, Wholesaler = distress score + equity, Explorer = balanced. We re-rank listings on that KPI and add a small penalty multiplier when a property's rules-and-restrictions signal works against the strategy (e.g., STR persona sees a 0.4–0.85x penalty on rentals blocked by HOA or capped by city ordinance).

Rules & restrictions

What is the Rules & Restrictions card?

Three traffic-light signals on every property page — the landmines that quietly kill Lee County deals: 1. **HOA / Condo restrictions** — rental bans, owner-occupancy waits, minimum lease terms. 2. **City STR registration** — whether the city requires a permit, has hit its annual cap, or enforces minimum-stay zones. 3. **FEMA 50% rebuild rule** — if the home sits in an A/AE/V/VE zone and the structure value is low, any renovation over 50% of structure value triggers full FEMA elevation compliance (often a teardown).

Where does the rules data come from?

Curated, hand-maintained datasets per signal: a community-by-community HOA/condo restriction table for known Lee County subdivisions, a city-by-city STR ordinance table (Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Estero, Lehigh Acres, unincorporated Lee), and FEMA NFHL zones combined with the LeePA just-value to compute substantial-improvement risk. We refresh ordinances quarterly and surface the 'Verified' date on each card.

How do I read green / amber / red on a rule?

Green (Clear) = no known restriction or risk. Amber (Verify) = a likely restriction or borderline risk that should be confirmed with the city or HOA before you commit. Red (Risk) = a confirmed hard block (HOA ban, city moratorium, or high 50%-rule risk) that materially changes the underwriting.

Can I hide STR-blocked properties from the marketplace?

Yes. STR-persona users get an automatic penalty on STR-restricted properties so they sink in the ranking. Other personas can opt into a 'Hide STR-restricted' chip in the filters bar.

Opportunities & filters

Do my filters stick if I refresh the page?

Yes. All filter state — including Rental risk / Low lease risk — is written into the URL, so reloading or sharing the link returns the exact same results set.

What is the 'Rental risk' chip on multi-family cards?

It's a composite score combining submarket vacancy %, bad-debt %, and turnover risk for the asset's unit mix. We show the underlying vacancy %, bad-debt %, and a Low / Balanced / Elevated risk tier directly on the card so you can compare without opening the panel.

What counts as a distress signal?

Any of: lis pendens (pre-foreclosure), tax delinquency, scheduled auction, code violations, or unusually long days on market. We surface these on the card and offer dedicated views under Auctions and Tax-delinquent.

How is the Affordability tier calculated?

We compare the property's true monthly carry against the local median household income. Optimal = comfortable, Tight = stretched but workable, Stress = unsustainable without creative financing or higher income.

Property detail

What does 'True monthly' include?

Principal & interest + property taxes + insurance + flood + HOA + special assessments + a modeled utilities baseline. It is the full carry — not just P&I — because SW Florida insurance and assessments can swing the number by hundreds per month.

How do I read the Cash Flow tab?

Top: NOI, cap rate, DSCR, and cash-on-cash for the current rent-roll assumptions. Middle: line-by-line operating model you can edit. Your rent-roll inputs persist across listings, so you can compare apples to apples.

What is NOI?

Net Operating Income = gross potential rent − vacancy − bad debt − operating expenses (taxes, insurance, management, repairs, reserves). NOI excludes mortgage payments; that's intentional, so the number is comparable across financing structures.

What is Cap rate?

Cap rate = NOI ÷ purchase price. It's a quick unlevered yield read. SW Florida small multi-family commonly trades in the 5.5–7.5% range; below that you're paying for upside or growth.

What is DSCR?

Debt Service Coverage Ratio = NOI ÷ annual debt service. Most DSCR lenders want 1.20–1.25 minimum. We flag listings that don't clear that bar with current rates.

What is Cash-on-cash return?

Annual pre-tax cash flow ÷ cash invested (down payment + closing + rehab). It tells you the yield on the dollars you actually put in, not on the leveraged asset value.

How is Vacancy % chosen?

Defaults are pulled from submarket averages for the property's bed-count and asset class. You can override it in the rent-roll panel; your override persists across listings until you change it.

How is Bad-debt % estimated?

Modeled from comparable assets in the submarket — evictions, concessions, skips. It's separate from vacancy: a unit can be occupied but not paying.

Why does flood zone matter so much?

FEMA AE and VE zones generally require flood insurance, which can add hundreds per month in SW Florida. We pull the zone from FEMA and model annual cost into True monthly so you don't underestimate the carry.

What is MAO (Max Allowable Offer)?

MAO is the ceiling price you can sensibly pay. For Buyer personas we compute it from your household income, target DTI, current rate, and the property's recurring costs (taxes, insurance, flood, HOA, utilities) — so the number reflects true affordability, not just P&I. For flippers, MAO becomes ARV × 70% − rehab. The card shows your gap vs. asking and a stress-case MAO if insurability worsens.

What does the Insurability Stress Test do?

It runs the property through preset adverse scenarios — roof age band slips one tier, flood premium up 30%, wind-mit credits expire, carrier non-renewal — and shows how each one moves true monthly cost and the affordability tier. The table stacks scenarios so you can see which lever hurts the most and how much your MAO drops in the worst case.

What is the Insurability Impact card?

The dollar drag on true monthly cost that comes specifically from this home's roof age and FEMA flood zone, compared against a fresh-roof / zone-X baseline. Already included in True Monthly Cost above — the card just isolates how much of that monthly burden is insurability and how much is everything else.

What is the Lease-risk chip on multi-family cards?

A composite tier (Low / Balanced / Elevated) that combines submarket vacancy %, bad-debt %, concession trends, and turnover risk for the unit mix. Shown directly on multi-family cards so you can compare lease-up risk without opening the panel.

What is the AI Property Brief?

A short plain-English read on the property generated by AI from the same public signals shown elsewhere on the page — true monthly carry, distress flags, hidden-cost signals, and the Rules & Restrictions layer. Returns a 0–100 risk score, 3–5 opportunities, 3–5 watch-outs, and 2–5 hidden-cost signals. Available to Buyer Pro members; non-pro users see a locked teaser.

Rent roll & wizard

Why are my rent-roll settings the same across properties?

By design. Your vacancy %, bad-debt %, opex %, cap rate, and management % carry across the wizard and every property detail page so you compare listings consistently. Edit on any property and the new value becomes your default everywhere.

What does the Guided wizard actually do?

It captures budget, HOA tolerance, risk preference, down-payment band, and financing style. We use those answers to rank Opportunities and to seed sensible defaults for the rent-roll panel.

RentCast market data

What do the RentCast panels show?

Two panels live in the Cash Flow tab — Estimated value (AVM with comp count and a delta vs. list price) and Estimated rent (AVM with gross yield) — plus a Listing history panel under the History tab. Data refreshes every 24h to respect the API quota.

Why does a RentCast panel sometimes say quota exceeded?

We cap third-party API calls per month to keep the service stable. If a panel hits the cap, it'll show a message and refresh on the next billing cycle. Other panels keep working.

Account & saved homes

How do saved homes work?

Click the heart on any card to save. Saved homes power Compare, alerts, and the AI assistant ('what did I save in Cape Coral under $400k?'). Saved homes follow your account across devices.

Can I get email alerts for new matches?

Yes — save a search from the Opportunities filters bar and we'll email you when new listings hit your criteria. Manage cadence under Settings → Alerts.

Contact

How do I get human help?

Use the Contact page or email the team directly. For data corrections (wrong tax, wrong flood zone, wrong listing status), include the address and we'll route it.

Glossary

Rental risk: Combines submarket vacancy %, historical bad-debt %, concession trends, and unit-type turnover. Low = priced for steady rent. High = expect softer occupancy and more lease-up cost.
Vacancy %: Share of units expected to be empty in a normal year. Higher % means less rent collected.
Bad-debt %: Estimated share of billed rent that won't be collected (skips, evictions, concessions). Modeled from comparable assets.
Risk tier: Bucketed lease risk — Low / Balanced / Elevated — for quick comparison across multi-family listings.
True monthly: Mortgage + taxes + insurance + flood + HOA + special assessments + typical utilities — the full carry, not just P&I.
NOI: Net Operating Income — gross rent minus vacancy, bad debt, and operating expenses (taxes, insurance, mgmt, repairs). Excludes financing.
Cap rate: NOI ÷ purchase price. A quick yield read; compare against current market cap rates for the asset class.
DSCR: Debt Service Coverage Ratio — NOI ÷ annual debt service. Lenders typically want 1.20–1.25+.
Cash-on-cash: Annual pre-tax cash flow ÷ cash invested (down payment, closing, rehab). Measures yield on the dollars you actually put in.
Opex %: Operating expenses as a % of gross rent. SW Florida small multi-family typically runs 35–50% with insurance volatility.
Management %: Property management fee as a % of collected rent. 8–10% is typical for SFR/small multi.
Estimated value: Third-party automated valuation (RentCast AVM) using nearby sale comps. Useful as a sanity check vs. list price.
Estimated rent: RentCast's long-term rent AVM based on rental comps with similar beds/baths/sqft.
Gross yield: Annual gross rent ÷ price. A fast top-line yield indicator before expenses.
Listing history: Past list/sold/price-change events for this address from MLS feeds. Helps spot stale listings and seller motivation.
Flood zone: FEMA zone designation. AE/VE typically require flood insurance and have meaningful annual cost.
Insurance estimate: Annual hazard insurance modeled from SW Florida market rates, roof age, build year, and exposure.
Roof age: Years since the roof was last replaced. Insurers in FL price hard against roofs older than 15 years.
Affordability tier: Optimal / Tight / Stress — your true monthly carry vs. local median household income.
Distress signal: Indicators a seller may be motivated: lis pendens, tax delinquency, auction filing, code violations, or long days on market.
Equity estimate: Estimated owner equity = AVM value minus open mortgage balance. Drives feasibility of creative offers.
AI brief: PropertiesGPS AI summary tailored to this property: opportunities, watch-outs, and hidden-cost signals.
Persona: Your investing strategy (Buyer, LTR, Flipper, STR, Wholesaler, Explorer). Re-ranks the marketplace and reorders detail-page panels to your KPI.
Opportunity score: Persona-tuned 0–100 score combining cash flow, distress, equity, and rule penalties to rank deals for your strategy.
Flex score: How well a property fits multiple strategies at once — high flex = works as LTR, STR, or flip without strong restrictions.
MAO (Max Allowable Offer): The ceiling price you can sensibly pay — income-and-DTI driven for buyers, ARV minus rehab for flippers.
Insurability stress test: Preset adverse scenarios (roof slip, flood +30%, carrier non-renewal) and how each moves true monthly cost and your MAO.
Insurability impact: Dollar drag on monthly cost from this home's roof age and FEMA zone vs a fresh-roof / zone-X baseline.
HOA / Condo restriction: Rental bans, owner-occupancy waits, or minimum-lease terms imposed by the community association.
City STR registration: Whether the city requires an STR permit, has hit its annual cap, or enforces minimum-stay zones.
FEMA 50% rebuild rule: In A/AE/V/VE zones, any renovation over 50% of structure value triggers full elevation compliance — often a teardown.