Home Buying Excel - Free Template

1. Start on the Home Purchase Tracker tab, shown in image 1. Enter the property ID, address, city, state, listing price, down payment percentage, interest rate, loan term, monthly taxes, insurance, HOA dues, closing cost percentage, offer price, dates, and notes in the input cells.
2. Review the calculated down payment, loan amount, estimated monthly principal and interest, total monthly payment, closing costs, cash needed to close, and offer-versus-listing result.
3. Select an Offer Status and Inspection Status from the dropdown lists. Use the available values rather than typing alternate spellings.
4. Open Mortgage Comparison, shown in image 2, and enter each lender, loan type, interest rate, APR, points, term, and property ID. The linked loan amount and calculated payment fields update from the tracker.
5. Compare the lender charts and the Best Rate Flag, but review APR, points, total interest, and total loan cost together instead of choosing only the lowest rate.
6. Use Closing Cost Breakdown, shown in image 3, for the property selected in the sample workbook. Enter estimated amounts, payer, due dates, and notes, then review the total and percentage of offer price.
7. Read Instructions, shown in image 4, before changing formulas. Save a copy of the XLSX file after entering your figures and confirm final numbers with your lender and real estate agent.

A household comparing several listings needs more than a list of addresses. The Home Purchase Tracker gives you one row per property, with fields for listing price, down payment percentage, interest rate, loan term, monthly taxes, insurance, HOA dues, offer price, inspection status, closing date, and notes. Image 1 shows the full comparison layout, including the calculated columns between the financing inputs and offer details.

Comparing Properties Before Making an Offer

The sample rows show why purchase price alone is a weak comparison. The New York property has a listing price of $850,000, a 20% down payment, $1,350 in monthly taxes, $1,650 in insurance, and $250 in HOA dues. The Dallas property lists at $425,000 with a 10% down payment, $425 in taxes, $700 in insurance, and $65 in HOA dues. Your actual monthly burden depends on every field, not just the listing number.

The sheet calculates down payment dollars as listing price multiplied by the down payment percentage, then subtracts that amount from the listing price to determine the loan amount. It also calculates estimated monthly principal and interest with PMT and adds taxes, insurance, and HOA dues to produce Est. Total Monthly Payment.

Tracking Offers And Inspections

A buyer may review several homes while only one reaches an accepted offer. The Offer Status dropdown includes Pending, Accepted, Rejected, and Under Review; the Inspection Status dropdown includes Not Scheduled, Scheduled, Passed, Passed with Repairs, Failed, and Waived. These controlled choices make a weekly review easier than scanning free-form notes.

Use the Notes column for practical details such as the sample note about a preferred transit location and multiple offers. The Closing Date field also turns a general search list into a transaction checklist once an offer is accepted.

The Mortgage Comparison tab is designed for reviewing lender scenarios for the property IDs in the tracker. Image 2 shows columns for lender, loan type, interest rate, APR, points, term, monthly principal and interest, total interest paid, total loan cost, payment difference versus the base scenario, Best Rate Flag, and linked loan amount.

Read Rate, APR, And Points Together

The workbook uses PMT to estimate monthly principal and interest from the entered interest rate, term, and linked loan amount. It calculates total interest by multiplying the monthly payment by the number of months and subtracting the loan amount. Total loan cost adds the points amount calculated from the points percentage and linked loan amount.

The sample scenarios include a 30-year conventional loan at 6.75%, a 30-year FHA loan at 6.50%, a 15-year conventional loan at 6.60%, and a 30-year VA loan at 6.00%. These are populated illustrations, not current quotes. Replace them with the figures from your lender's disclosures.

Build A Cash-to-Close Estimate

Image 3 shows the Closing Cost Breakdown tab. Its rows include earnest money, home inspection, appraisal, title insurance, attorney fees, recording fees, and loan origination fee, with columns for estimated amount, paid by, due date, required status, and notes. The workbook totals the estimated amounts and divides the total by the offer price linked from Home Purchase Tracker.

For example, the sample earnest money is $5,000, the inspection is $450, and the appraisal is $550. Those amounts are separate line items from the tracker’s percentage-based closing-cost estimate, so review both views and avoid adding the same fee twice when building your personal cash plan.

The most expensive mistake is treating the estimated monthly payment as a final mortgage quote. The workbook calculates principal and interest with PMT, then adds the entered taxes, insurance, and HOA dues. It does not include PMI unless you add it manually, and it does not replace a lender’s official disclosure.

Input Errors That Distort The Comparison

Entering 6.75 instead of 6.75% changes the rate by a factor of 100. The Interest Rate % and Down Payment % cells use percentage formatting, so enter values as percentages in Excel. Similarly, Points are entered as a percentage-style loan charge in the mortgage comparison calculation; check the lender’s terminology before copying a quote.

A mismatched Property ID creates another problem. Mortgage Comparison uses VLOOKUP to bring the loan amount from columns A:H of Home Purchase Tracker. If you type H-1001 in one sheet and H-100I with a capital letter I in the other, the linked amount can return zero through IFERROR and make the payment comparison meaningless.

Closing Costs That Get Counted Twice

The tracker estimates closing costs by multiplying offer price by the entered Closing Costs %. Closing Cost Breakdown separately lists dollar amounts such as the sample $5,000 earnest money, $1,200 title insurance, and $2,500 loan origination fee. Combining both totals without checking the underlying assumptions can overstate the cash requirement.

Another common failure is leaving the sample dates and amounts in place. A closing date of 08/28/2026 and a due date of 07/15/2026 are examples from the workbook, not your contract. If you do not replace them, your timeline and cash schedule will describe someone else’s transaction.

Use the workbook at a fixed point in your home search instead of updating it only when an offer is due. A 20-minute review after each showing is enough to enter the property row, record the lender assumptions, and write one concrete note about location, condition, or competing offers.

Keep Inputs Separate From Calculations

Follow the yellow-cell guidance on the Instructions tab. Enter assumptions in the input cells and leave white or gray formula cells unchanged. If you overwrite a formula in a calculated column, the row may stop updating even though the displayed number still looks reasonable.

• Copy the property ID exactly between Home Purchase Tracker and Mortgage Comparison.
• Update rate, APR, points, and term whenever a lender sends revised figures.
• Enter each closing-cost estimate once and identify whether it belongs in the percentage estimate or the detailed breakdown.
• Use the status dropdowns after every inspection or offer change.

Review Before You Commit

Before comparing offers, check the Est. Total Monthly Payment and Cash Needed to Close columns together. A property that appears affordable monthly may require more upfront cash, while a lower-rate scenario may carry higher points or a longer total interest cost.

Image 4 contains the workbook instructions, definitions, assumptions, and quick-reference metrics. The XLSX file is a planning tool with sample U.S. housing figures; use the lender’s Loan Estimate and final closing disclosure for binding numbers. If you are tracking many homes, frequent lender revisions, or detailed transaction documents, move the authoritative records to your lender and closing records rather than relying on this workbook alone.