Know your target yield? Enter it below and we'll calculate the exact maximum price to pay — plus a smart opening offer so you have room to negotiate.
Fill in the note details above and click Calculate to see your offer price.
This tool answers the most important question in note investing: what is the most I should pay for this note? Instead of guessing or working backward on paper, you enter your target yield and let the calculator do the math.
Before you look at any deal, decide the minimum annual return you will accept. This keeps you disciplined. Most experienced note investors use these benchmarks:
You need four numbers from the note documents: the Unpaid Principal Balance (UPB), the monthly payment, the remaining term in months, and any balloon payment. All of these should be in the note's payment history or servicing records.
The calculator gives you two numbers: your maximum offer price (the absolute most you can pay and still hit your target yield) and a suggested opening offer (typically 5% below your maximum). Always start your negotiation at or below the opening offer — this gives you room to move up to your true ceiling without overpaying.
After you know your offer price, run it through the LTV Safety Checker. Your LTV tells you what happens if the borrower stops paying and you have to foreclose. A strong deal has both a good yield AND a low LTV.
Your max offer is the ceiling — the price at which your yield drops to exactly your target. Pay any more and your return falls below your goal. Your opening offer is what you actually say first in negotiations. Starting below your max gives the seller room to counter while you still come out at your target yield or better.
Most note sellers and brokers advertise a note by its face value or its monthly payment, not by yield — because a bigger monthly payment number looks more impressive in a listing. That's exactly why this calculator matters: it converts the seller's marketing numbers into the one figure that actually determines whether the deal makes sense for you. Don't let a big monthly payment number talk you into skipping the math.
If your maximum offer comes back well below what the seller is asking, you have three options: walk away, negotiate using the calculator's numbers as your justification (show them the math), or revisit your target yield if you believe the collateral is strong enough to justify a lower return. What you should never do is talk yourself into paying more than your maximum just because you like the deal emotionally — that's how yields quietly erode over a portfolio.
This is the calculator I use before I ever put a number in front of a seller. My rule is simple: I decide my target yield before I look at the deal, not after. If I look at the numbers first, I start rationalizing a lower yield to justify a deal I already like — and that's exactly backwards.
One habit that's saved me more than once: I always run the opening offer 5-10% below my true ceiling, even on deals that look like a slam dunk. Sellers almost always counter, and if you open at your max, you have nowhere left to go but overpay.