How to Use Buybox Search in PadPulse

Overview

The Buybox Search feature helps you quickly identify investment properties that match your personal criteria. It works by pulling available listings from a target area, running them through your defined investment parameters, and surfacing only those that pass your buybox — saving you from manually analyzing hundreds of properties.

Step 1: Configure Your Buybox Settings

Before running a search, set up your investment criteria in Settings. A guide is available directly on this page to help you understand each field. Default values are provided to get you started — adjust them to match your actual investment goals.

Criteria you can configure:

• Minimum cash-on-cash return.
• Minimum monthly cash flow.
• Minimum and maximum purchase price.
• Maximum converted bedroom count.
• Minimum square footage.
• Minimum lot size — a value is required here even if lot size is not a priority for you (enter 1 if you have no preference).
• No HOA — enabled by default, as HOA properties are generally not recommended for this strategy. You can turn this off if needed.

**Important:**You must also configure your Underwriting Defaults. The Buybox settings page includes a link that takes you directly to the Underwriting tab under Settings. Both your buybox criteria and underwriting defaults must be set before running a search.
**Saving changes:**Throughout the app, if there is no explicit Save button on a field, look for the green Save button that appears in the top right corner whenever you make a change. It will confirm when your changes have been saved.

Step 2: Run a Buybox Search

Buybox searches are triggered from the Research section of the app, not from Settings or Reports. Here's how to run one:

1. Navigate to Research and open the property or market area you want to search.
2. Click Find Buybox to initiate the search.
3. The search will take between 2 and 10 minutes depending on the size of the market.
4. Once complete, the report will appear automatically in the Reports section.

Step 3: Review Your Report

Reports are found under the Reports section. Each report shows:

• The weekly rental rate used for calculations — pulled automatically as the average from PadSplit for that city. You can adjust this if needed.
• Total properties found in the search area.
• How many properties passed your buybox criteria vs. how many fell outside it.
• Full details for every property, including cash-on-cash return, cash flow, and other key metrics.

Tips for reviewing results:

• Filter to Buybox only — this narrows the list to only properties that meet all your criteria (e.g., 12 out of 320 in the example), so you're not reviewing every property manually.
• Sort by your priority metric — sort by cash-on-cash return or cash flow (or any other column) to surface your best opportunities at the top.
• Review properties outside your buybox — this can help you spot patterns. For example, if many properties are excluded solely due to bedroom count but have strong returns, it may be worth widening that parameter.
• If very few or no properties pass your buybox — the most common reason is that your maximum purchase price is too low for the market. Try adjusting that first.
• Export as PDF — you can export the full report as a PDF for sharing or offline review.
• Re-evaluate with different criteria — you can adjust your buybox criteria directly from the report and re-run the evaluation without triggering a full new search.

Step 4: Act on Results

For each property in the report, you have two actions available:

• View Listing — opens the property on Zillow so you can review photos, description, and listing details.
• Open in Underwriting — opens the property in the Underwriting tool in a new tab, where you can make adjustments to the analysis. For example, if the listing photos show the kitchen is missing, you can add the renovation cost; if a roof replacement is needed, you can factor that in. Refer to the Underwriting video for full instructions.

Saving Properties to Favorites

You can star any property in a report to save it to your Favorites. Favorited properties are accessible from the Favorites section and retain the following links:

• View on Zillow.

Updated on: 25/06/2026