SpendTree aims to change residential real estate investing by empowering individual investors with an easy to understand tool that provides the relevant analyses to make better investment decisions. Utlizing a combination of user-generated and external data, the SpendTree tool can provide a more thorough analysis of investment properties than what most individual investors are used to. This includes metrics that most real estate investors are familiar with, but also provides capabilities that have generally been the domain of professional and more sophisticated investors such as detailed sensitivities, hold period analyses, pro-formas, and market benchmarking.
Historically, a spreadsheet and good local knowledge of the real estate market was enough to be competitive in residential real estate. The reality today, however, is that the market is becoming more sophisticated as professional investors branch out in search of yield. We wanted to help the average real estate investor stay ahead of the curve by bringing some of this sophistication to them. The truth is, that we’re property investors too. We’ve also got backgrounds in professional investing and technology development and we were tired of doing a lot of manual analyses on prospective properties. As much as this is a tool for the average investor, it’s also a tool that we wanted.
You can create up to 5 property reports for free by singing up for our Basic package. Beyond that, it’s $9.97/month to upgrade to Plus for unlimited reports and the ability to share those reports in the platform with others (you can share as many reports as you’d like with other users). We’re also working on a professional version, tentatively priced at $49.97/month, that will allow real estate professionals to brand reports and share them through a branded portal with their clients.
Once signed up on SpendTree, it’s quick and easy to create a report. Just complete the following basic information:
And the tool will do the rest. If you would like the report to incorporate more refined information such as mortgage assumptions or rent assumptions, you can go through the more detailed report creation process outlined on our blog here. And don’t worry, even after a report has been created, you can go back and change or update the assumptions by editing the report.
Currently SpendTree is only available and supported for properties located in the United States and Canada. This is due to limitations in the external market data that we currently use in the report creation process. We hope to add other countries in the futures, so please register your interest here so that we can be sure to appropriately prioritize our development focus.
Creating a new report can be done in as little as 1 minute by providing the basic information needed and letting the report estimate the rest. We do recommend, however, that you review the assumptions in the report for accuracy and should you have more refined information, update the report to generate a more accurate forecast for the property.
You must be on the Plus package to share reports. Once upgraded, it’s simple to share reports. Just click on the share icon next to the report name and enter the email address of the recipient. If the recipient is already on the platform, the shared report will automatically be added to their shared report list. If not, they’ll receive an email asking them to register first. Recipients of shared reports can edit the report assumptions by first duplicating the report into their report list. This creates a copy of the report that they can then edit (note that this will not affect the original shared report), but note that duplicating shared reports also counts towards 1 of the 5 free reports a basic user gets.
Reports and forecasts are only as accurate as their underlying assumptions. SpendTree and its creators takes no responsibility in the quality of the data behind the reports, or in the quality of the report outputs. It is highly recommended that you review each and every one of the assumptions that underly the report. As with any process, garbage in = garbage out. We also don’t purport to render legal, accounting, tax, investment, financial planning or other professional advice. Should you need any of these services, we recommend you speak to a professional.
External data is sourced from a variety of organizations including the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics Canada, U.S. Bureau of Labor, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and S&P/Case Shiller amongst others. We’ve generally tried to provide the sources for external data within the tool, but should you still have questions on specific external data, please feel free to contact us at info@spendtree.com.
Please feel free to contact us with any feedback or questions that you may have. We can be reached at info@spendtree.com
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