Loan principal & interest on the standard amortization curve, plus property tax, insurance, and HOA — your true monthly outflow. Cash at closing is a fixed pot: closing costs come out first, then any renovation money you're funding from it, and what survives is the down payment.

Closing costs come in two halves. Fees — title, settlement, recording, transfer taxes, lender charges — are 2%of price, a national blend that isn't state-specific (transfer tax is customarily the seller's in most states, so budget above this where you split or pay it). Prepaid escrow is computed from the house's own bills: 12 months of insurance plus a 2-month cushion, and 2 months of tax — a floor, since tax escrow depends on your closing date. Both come out of your cash before the down payment; together they typically land in the 2%–5% range. Excludes agent commission (seller-paid).

With a fixed cash pot, rolling the work into the loan and paying for it out of your closing cash borrow the same amount: (price + work) − (cash − closing) equals price − (cash − closing − work). So the real choice is whether the money comes from this budget at all — if it does, the payment rises; if it comes from elsewhere, the mortgage is untouched and you simply need that much more.

Each metric is scored 0–1 across your houses (best = 1), then combined by your weights into one composite score that ranks them. Change weights, ranking updates live.

Renovation 2026-07-05, closing 2026-08-21, DTI 2026-07-13. All are editorial-guide benchmarks — rough starting points, not quotes.