Applicability: CountyEdge property research with investment evaluation; all amounts are USD. Editorial review: 2026-10-01. Examples are fictional sensitivity exercises, not forecasts or promised returns.
Outcome
Understand what makes an investment work, test less favorable assumptions, and distinguish an on-screen calculation from a saved research report.
Before you begin
Open a property report that includes investment evaluation. Facts-only reports exclude investment strategies and scenarios. Preliminary findings may also include scenarios while research continues; read their preliminary status before relying on them.
Have your own figures for the purchase, project work, financing, recurring costs, and income where known. A contractor quote, lender quote, and evidence-supported rent estimate answer different questions. Keep those distinctions when replacing planning assumptions.
Practical steps
- Begin with Property overview, then follow Deal economics to the strategy comparison. Read the investment takeaways before the numbers and note the conditions, concerns, and decision rule for each strategy.
- In Your investment scenarios, begin with Base. Expand Inputs and assumptions and identify which figures came from you, which are sourced estimates, and which are planning assumptions or unresolved values.
- Compare Downside and Upside. Read the sensitivity assumptions rather than assuming these represent statistical probabilities or local market forecasts.
- Choose Adjust assumptions to test your own figures. Confirm Financing and Budget basis. For a loan scenario, review both the loan principal and monthly debt payment; available cash is a separate constraint.
- Review the resulting cash flow, cash requirement, project outlay, profit, or purchase ceiling as applicable. Read every warning about budget, available cash, and return targets.
- If you need the revised assumptions reflected in a written report, use Save a new analysis version when available. This creates a new research case and uses report allowance. Return to that case and wait for its completed version.
- Open the saved version before downloading its PDF. Keep the earlier report when you need a record of the previous assumptions and evidence date.
Worked example
A fictional rental scenario uses $2,400 monthly rent, 7% vacancy, $600 monthly operating costs, $150 monthly reserves, and $1,200 monthly debt service. Its monthly cash flow is $2,400 less $168 vacancy, $600 operating costs, $150 reserves, and $1,200 debt: $282.
If only rent falls by 10% to $2,160, the same vacancy rate leaves $2,008.80 before the other costs, and monthly cash flow becomes $58.80. This illustrates why a modest headline surplus can be sensitive to the income assumption. CountyEdge's full Downside comparison also changes other modeled inputs, so review its full assumptions rather than expecting this single-variable example to reproduce every output.
Changing the on-screen rent to $2,160 updates the scenario calculation. It does not rewrite the saved assessment or update the report PDF. A new saved analysis version is the step that asks CountyEdge to reassess the changed inputs.
How to interpret it
Base uses the inputs identified in the report. Downside tests rent and exit value 10% lower, the project allowance 25% higher, and the holding period 50% longer. Upside tests rent and exit value 5% higher, the project allowance 10% lower, and the holding period 25% shorter. Read the displayed limitations, including any rounding of holding periods.
These comparisons are sensitivity tests. They do not assign a probability to an outcome, establish market value, confirm rental permission, or substitute for a quote. A positive return can still depend on unresolved title, zoning, flood, or condition evidence.
Read a modeled purchase ceiling as conditional on its costs, exit value, and profit target. Read a modeled cash requirement as a planning figure that needs comparison with lender timing and your available cash. For financed resale scenarios, the stated model treats supplied debt payments as financing cost without crediting principal paydown; use a lender payoff schedule for an exact exit analysis.
The displayed Break-even monthly rent includes any supplied monthly cash-flow target. If you entered a target above zero, the threshold is the rent needed to cover modeled costs and that target, not merely a zero-cash-flow rent.
Common problems
- A value says Enter an assumption to calculate: inspect Inputs and assumptions for what remains unresolved. A missing value is not zero.
- A scenario looks favorable because costs are low: verify which costs are estimates or planning allowances and whether your quoted expenses cover the same items.
- The written recommendation did not change after an edit: on-screen adjustments only recalculate this browser view. Create a new analysis version to update the saved assessment.
- The PDF shows the previous numbers: it represents the saved report, not unsaved browser edits. Open the completed new version before downloading again.
- Save a new analysis version is missing or unavailable: check remaining allowance, whether another report is running, and any service error. Existing reports remain readable.
- The report has no scenarios: check whether you requested Facts only or opened a report that does not include this investment view.
Next action
Open your property research cases and review one completed report. Use Interpret market evidence to assess income and exit assumptions, or Rental cash flow for the basic rental calculation.