Analysing Property Deals with Our Property Triage Process
If you’re serious about investing, you’ll soon realise that most of the properties you see online aren’t suitable. It’s a good idea to come up with a process for analysing properties quickly, so that you can avoid wasting time viewing houses that could have been ruled out in half an hour on your laptop.
That’s where our property triage process comes in. Instead of deep-diving into every property that catches your eye, you can apply a quick and structured process to separate the properties that are worth pursuing from the ones which aren’t.
The outcome? A simple ranking system:
- Proceed – The property looks good, let’s book a viewing.
- Park – Let’s park it for now, but revisit the property later.
- Pass – It’s best to move on and not waste any more time on this property.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the property triage process, giving you a repeatable 30-40 minute workflow to follow each time you find a potential propety. Then, we’ll show you how AI can help you do the same job – with better outputs – in under 10 minutes!
What You’ll Need
Before you dive into the numbers, it helps to get everything in one place. Here’s a simple checklist of what you’ll need to complete the triage process for each property you analyse:
- A spreadsheet tool
Google Sheets, Excel, or whatever you prefer. This will be the backbone of your analysis and the place where you can log each deal for easy comparison later.
Pro tip: Have Sheet 1 as your master sheet, with a one-line decision about each property that you can filter by strategy, cashflow, or follow-up status. Use Sheet 2 onwards to crunch the numbers and capture details for each new property you find.
- The property listing URL
A link from Rightmove, Zoopla, or another portal. This keeps all your notes tied to the exact property and makes it easy to revisit later.
- Some basic property details
Information about the property including: Address, Number of bedrooms and bathrooms, Tenure (freehold or leasehold), Lease length if it’s leasehold (this matters more than you might think – short leases can kill a deal).
- Three rental comparables
Find properties that are close by, similar in size/spec, and ideally already let (not just listed) to compare your potential property to. This gives you a realistic rental range to work with.
- A refurbishment cost estimate
Estimate a rough figure for what you might need to spend on refurbishments. This can be just a range for now (e.g. £8k–£15k). Precision isn’t the goal at this stage – it’s about being realistic.
- Expected finance terms
Note down the terms you’d expect on your mortgage, including Loan-to-Value (LTV %), Deposit (%), Interest rate, Interest-only term length (years). These are the assumptions that feed your cashflow numbers.
- Estimated fixed costs
These are the “always-on” costs you should factor in: (usually around) Management: 12% of rent (if you’re not self-managing), Voids: 5% of rent (allowing for periods with no tenant), Maintenance: 5% of rent (repairs, wear and tear), Insurance: ~£35/month (good ballpark for a standard BTL property).
Having these inputs ready makes the whole process faster and more consistent. You don’t want to be scrambling around every time you pick up a new listing!
Part 1: The Manual Property Triage Process for a Simple Buy-to-Let
Use this step-by-step framework to analyse a potential property in around 30-40 minutes. By the end, you’ll know whether to Proceed with a property viewing, Park the property for follow-up later, or Pass on that property all together.
Step 1: Define Success
Before you crunch any numbers, you need to know what “good” looks like for you. Otherwise, you’ll just be pushing numbers around without a clear goal. Follow these steps to do this:
- Choose your strategy
Are you looking for a simple buy-to-let (BTL), a BRRRR project (Buy, Refurbish, Refinance, Rent, Repeat), or an HMO conversion? Each has different targets, so be clear upfront.
- Set your “red lines”
Work out your minimum monthly net cashflow (e.g. “At least £350 net after all costs”) and your maximum cash input (e.g. “No more than £75k of my own money for deposit, refurb, fees and SDLT”).
- Note your deal breakers
Anything that rules out the deal instantly – such as properties with severe planning issues, extremely short leases, or licensing restrictions you don’t want to handle.
Output: A one-liner that sums up your strategy, e.g., “Proceed only if net cashflow ≥ £350/month and cash required ≤ £75k.”
Step 2: Extract the Facts
Next, open the property listing and strip out the information you need. Such as:
- Address
- Number of beds and baths
- Floor area (if listed)
- EPC rating
- Condition notes (e.g. “needs modernisation”)
- Tenure (freehold/leasehold, lease length, ground rent/service charge if relevant)
- Parking/amenities
- Any obvious red flags: “cash buyers only,” “short lease,” “tenanted,” “non-standard construction.”
Output: A short summary of the property in plain English, e.g.: “2-bed mid-terrace, leasehold with 85 years left, EPC D, dated kitchen, street parking.”
Step 3: Build Your Rental Comparables
Your cashflow depends on rent – so don’t guess it! Find at least three properties within a close radius and with a similar spec to act as comparables.
- Record their listed or achieved monthly rent.
- Adjust for differences (e.g. smaller size, new kitchen, extra bathroom).
- Write notes to remind yourself why you adjusted.
Output example:
| Address | Asking / Let Rent | Adjustment | Adjusted Rent |
| Property 1 | £1,200 | -10% smaller | £1,100 |
| Property 2 | £1,050 | Similar | £1,050 |
| Property 3 | £950 | + new kitchen | £1000 |
Pro tip: Take the mid rent unless there’s strong evidence to go high or low.
Step 4: Quick Finance & Monthly Cashflow
Now, let’s see what the property actually puts in your pocket each month. To do this, you’ll need to work out the following:
-
- Loan amount = Price × LTV ratio
- Monthly mortgage (interest-only) = (Loan × Rate) ÷ 12
- Operating costs:
-
- Management = Rent × 12%
- Voids = Rent × 5%
- Maintenance = Rent × 5%
- Insurance = £35/month (ballpark)
- Net cashflow = Rent (mid) − Mortgage − All costs
- Break-even rent = Mortgage + All costs (useful sense-check: could the area realistically achieve this rent?)
Output: An understanding of how much you’ll earn each month:
- Rent (mid): £1,050
- Mortgage: £525
- Costs: £230
- Net cashflow: £295/month
Step 5: Cash Required
Next, figure out how much of your own money will be tied up in the deal. Including:
- Deposit = Price × Deposit%
- Stamp Duty (SDLT): Use the Gov calculator
- Fees allowance: legals, broker, valuation (~£3-4k)
- Refurb cost: take the midpoint of your low–high estimate
Output: An itemised breakdown of the total cash required:
- Deposit: £52,500
- SDLT: £6,000
- Fees: £3,000
- Refurb: £10,000
- Total cash required = £71,500
Step 6: Ceiling Price Sense-Check
If the deal doesn’t hit your cashflow target at asking price, what price would make it work? Reduce the price in your spreadsheet until net cashflow meets your red line. That’s your “ceiling price.”
Output: A one-liner like “At £210k this yields £280/mth net. Meets target only if purchase price ≤ £190k.”
Step 7: Scrutinise the Deal
Be honest about the risks. List the main ways your estimates could be wrong and the impact this could have. For examples:
- Rent optimism → could be £100/month lower
- Refurb issues → costs could run £5-10k higher
- Mortgage product risk → rate rises at renewal
- Location → crime/street reputation might reduce demand
- Lease/title issue → legal costs or financing barrier
Output: A bullet point list of the risks, plus a revised Proceed / Park / Pass assessment.
Step 8: Log It (30 Seconds)
Don’t let the work go to waste! Add a line to your master sheet summarising your findings, which includes:
- Address (or street if full not known)
- Listing URL
- Strategy (BTL, HMO, BRRR)
- Rent low/mid/high
- Net cashflow
- Cash required
- Decision (Proceed / Park / Pass)
Over time, your master sheet will become a database of all the properties you’ve analysed. Just remember to revisit your Parked properties every now and then, as you may want to follow up if the vendor reduces the asking price.
So there you have it – our manual property triage process. It’s structured, repeatable, and once you’ve done it a few times, you’ll be able to run through new properties comfortably in half an hour!
Part 2: The AI Property Triage Process
Why spend 40 minutes per property when AI can do the heavy lifting for you in under 10 minutes?
Our AI Prompt Pack is designed to replicate the manual workflow: just enter a few details about the property, comparison properties, and your finance assumptions into an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude and get:
- A property summary
- A rent comparison table
- Cashflow calculations
- Cash required breakdown
- Ceiling price analysis
- A Proceed / Park / Pass recommendation
… all in under 10 minutes!
Download our FREE AI Prompt Pack and start analysing deals faster, smarter, and more consistently today.
Make every property count
The reality of property investing is that most deals won’t work. And that’s perfectly normal… Even seasoned investors pass on the majority of opportunities they see! The difference between a successful investor and someone who wastes time viewing unsuitable properties lies in process and discipline.
Our property triage process is designed to help you:
- Decide whether a property is suitable quickly and confidently.
- Keep an ongoing record of potential deals that you can filter by strategy, cashflow, or follow-up status to see which opportunities may emerge later.
- Define your red lines up front to help you avoid falling in love with properties that don’t meet your financial goals.
- Spot risks early to prevent unpleasant surprises down the line.
And with AI speeding up the process, you can reduce your analysis time to under 10 minutes while still generating the same outputs you’d produce manually! This means you can analyse more properties, and make initial investment decisions with confidence.
End-to end property services in Nottingham
Imagine having a trusted and experienced partner to help you make informed investment decisions and handle the day-to-day management of your investment properties. At Purseglove, that’s exactly what we offer.
Our end-to-end services are designed to support you at every step of your investment journey, from sourcing your first property to growing a multi-million pound portfolio – and everything in between. Get in touch for more information and to take the stress out of growing your property portfolio.