What is Buy to Let Help?
Buy to Let Help is an analysis tool for people evaluating buy-to-let property investments. It is designed for individual investors, portfolio landlords, and anyone who wants to understand the financial shape of a potential rental property before committing money.
The tool calculates cash flow, yield, return on investment, and other key metrics based on the assumptions you provide. It does not give financial advice, make predictions, or tell you whether a deal is good or bad. It helps you think clearly about the numbers so you can make your own informed decisions.
Start in the calculator
The calculator is free to use and requires no account. You can enter a purchase price, mortgage details, rent, and running costs to see an immediate breakdown of monthly profit, annual yield, and ROI.
Nothing is saved by default. This is intentional — the calculator is designed for quick experimentation. You can adjust any input and see results update instantly.
Use this stage to stress-test your assumptions. What happens if the mortgage rate rises by a point? What if rent is lower than the agent quoted? What if maintenance costs more than expected? The calculator answers these questions in seconds.
Saving a scenario
When you find a set of numbers worth keeping, you can save it as a scenario. A scenario is a snapshot of one specific property analysis — a combination of purchase price, financing, rent, and costs that you want to revisit later.
Saving requires a free account. Once saved, scenarios appear on your My Scenarios page where you can compare them side by side.
Giving each scenario a clear name matters. Something like "14 Oak Lane — asking price" is more useful than "Test 1" when you come back to it a week later. You can also attach a listing URL so you can jump straight back to the property advert.
The distinction between experimenting and saving is deliberate. Experimenting is free and disposable. Saving means you think the numbers are worth preserving.
Scenario statuses
Each scenario has a status that reflects where it sits in your decision-making process. Statuses are not enforced by the system — they represent your thinking, not a rigid workflow.
The five statuses are:
- Draft — I saved this so I don't lose it. It may be worth looking at again, but I haven't committed any effort to validating it yet.
- Shortlisted — This is a serious contender. I'm validating the numbers, checking costs, and looking at comparables.
- Offer made — I'm engaging with the seller and negotiating price or terms. The analysis looked strong enough to act on.
- Offer accepted — This is now a real deal. The seller has accepted the offer and the purchase is progressing.
- Not proceeding — This didn't work out and I'm no longer pursuing it. The numbers didn't stack up, the deal fell through, or I found something better.
You can change a scenario's status at any time from its detail page. Statuses help you filter and prioritise when you have multiple deals in play at once.
Using comparables
Comparables (comps) let you record price and rent data from similar properties to benchmark your assumptions. This is a Premium feature.
Comps are most useful during the Shortlisted phase, when you are validating whether the numbers you entered in the calculator reflect reality. If similar properties in the area rent for less than you assumed, that changes the picture.
There are two types of comp:
- Price comps — what similar properties have sold for recently. These help you assess whether the asking price is reasonable.
- Rent comps — what similar properties are renting for. These help you validate your rental income assumption.
Comps are data you collect yourself from portals, agents, or public records. Buy to Let Help does not provide comps automatically. It gives you a place to record and compare them alongside your scenario numbers.
Area Insights
Area Insights shows automated valuation estimates, area yield data, and 5-year price growth for a scenario's postcode. It uses real market data, not user-entered assumptions. This is a Premium feature.
To use it, add a postcode and property type to a scenario's Property Details section. For valuation estimates, fill in all property attributes — bedrooms, bathrooms, internal area, finish quality, construction date, parking, and outdoor space.
Area yield and price growth appear as soon as a postcode is set. Valuation estimates require all property attributes to be filled in.
Data refreshes once every 24 hours per scenario.
This is useful for validating whether the assumptions entered in the calculator — purchase price, expected rent — are in line with the local market.
Advanced analysis
Two additional analysis tools are available for Premium users: Target ROI and BRRR analysis.
Target ROI works in reverse. Instead of entering a price and seeing the ROI, you specify the ROI you want and the tool calculates the maximum purchase price that would achieve it. This is useful when you have a return threshold in mind and want to know what you can afford to pay.
BRRR analysis models the Buy, Refurbish, Refinance, Rent strategy. You enter refurbishment costs and the expected post-refurbishment value, and the tool calculates how much capital you can recycle through refinancing and what the returns look like afterwards.
Both tools make simplifying assumptions. They do not account for tax, void periods, capital growth, or changes in interest rates over time. They are intended to give you a structured starting point for analysis, not a complete financial model.
Offer tracking
When you move from analysis to negotiation, offer tracking provides a record of submitted offers and counter-offers. This is a Premium feature.
Each offer represents a single submitted number — the amount you (or the seller) put on the table at a specific point in time. If the seller counters, that is recorded as a new offer event. If you counter back, that is another event.
The philosophy is simple: an offer is immutable once recorded. You cannot change the amount after the fact because that would misrepresent what was actually offered. You can update the status (to accepted or rejected) and add notes.
Offer tracking exists to help you think clearly during negotiations. When you can see the full history — who offered what and when — it is easier to assess your next move.
What Buy to Let Help does not do
Setting clear boundaries builds trust, so here is what this tool does not cover:
- No guaranteed valuations. Area Insights provides estimates based on comparable market data. These are indicative, not formal valuations. A surveyor or RICS valuation is needed for lending and legal purposes.
- No market predictions. The tool does not forecast rent changes, interest rate movements, or property price trends.
- No tax advice. Calculations do not account for income tax, corporation tax, capital gains, or Section 24 mortgage interest relief restrictions. Consult an accountant for tax planning.
- No guarantees. Results depend entirely on the assumptions you enter. If those assumptions are wrong, the output will be too. The tool helps you model scenarios, not predict outcomes.
The workflow in summary
Buy to Let Help is designed to support progressive decision-making. You do not need to use every feature at once. A typical workflow looks like this:
- Experiment freely in the calculator to get a feel for the numbers.
- Save scenarios worth revisiting. Give them clear names.
- Shortlist the strongest candidates and validate assumptions with comparables.
- Check area insights to see how your assumptions compare to local market data.
- Use Target ROI or BRRR analysis if they apply to your strategy.
- Track offers when you move into negotiation.
- Mark deals as accepted or not proceeding to keep your pipeline clear.
Start simple. Use more features as your confidence and deal pipeline grow.