Platform · Glossary
3Y Estimate™.
The price 3Y computes for a specific property and a specific investor goal. It answers a question other valuation tools often do not: what price does your selected goal support? It is not a market estimate, and it is not an appraisal.
In a nutshell, the 3Y Estimate helps you stop chasing the market and let your own numbers set the context. The market has a price; you have a goal. 3Y shows where the property’s modeled income, expenses, financing, and your selected goal meet.
What it actually represents
The 3Y Estimate is the goal-supported price for the property based on the current assumptions. Most valuation tools work forward — input a price, output a yield. The 3Y Estimate works backward. Given a target, such as cash-on-cash return, DSCR, or cash velocity, it identifies the price where the property’s modeled income, expenses, financing, and selected goal converge under realistic assumptions for taxes, insurance, vacancy, maintenance, and management.
The 3Y Estimate gives you a disciplined decision target to aim your underwriting, negotiation, and due diligence around. It is the price where the deal’s modeled income, expenses, financing, and selected goal converge under the current assumptions.
The three valuation lenses
The 3Y Estimate is best understood as a goal-based lens alongside two common market-oriented ways investors often think about value.
| Lens | Starting point | Main question |
|---|---|---|
| Comparative context | Similar property sales or asking prices | What does outside market evidence suggest? |
| Income-based context | Income stream and operating yield | What does the property’s income appear to support? |
| Goal-convergent valuation | Investor goal and deal assumptions | What price makes this work for me? |
The current 3Y report focuses on the third lens: the 3Y Estimate™, or goal-convergent price. It shows the purchase price supported by the selected goal under the current assumptions.
The other lenses are still useful context when an investor evaluates a deal. 3Y’s core question is not only what the market may support. It is whether the deal’s modeled income, expenses, financing, and selected goal can meet in the same place.
What it is not
The 3Y Estimate is not the same as a market estimate. A market estimate, such as a Zestimate, comp-based AVM, broker opinion, or income-based market estimate, describes what outside market evidence may support. The 3Y Estimate describes what price your selected goal supports under the current assumptions. A deal can have a $400K market estimate and a $360K 3Y Estimate — meaning the market-facing price may require stronger assumptions, better terms, or a different goal before the deal converges with the investor’s target.
The 3Y Estimate is not an appraisal. It is an estimated target purchase price for a property. It is not the same as the opinion of value in an appraisal developed by a licensed appraiser under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. It should not be relied upon for lending, tax, insurance, or legal purposes.