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How-to: Shop by budget (affordability-first search)

Instead of looking up one address, state what you can afford and get back a list of homes that fit both a home-price budget and an insurance-premium budget.

Who this is for: home buyers (and agents shopping on a client's behalf). Where: the Shop by budget tab (/affordability). Time: ~2 min.


When to use it

Use this when you're exploring an area rather than checking a specific home — especially if your monthly budget is tight and insurance cost could make or break affordability.


Steps

  1. Click Shop by budget in the nav (or the "Shop by budget" CTA on the Search

page).

  1. Enter your budgets and area:
  • Home-price ceiling (and optional floor).
  • Insurance-premium ceiling — monthly or annual.
  • Area — city, state, and/or ZIP.
  1. Run it. You get a list of matching properties, each with a **modeled insurance

premium and a fit badge**.


Reading the results

  • Matches are sorted fits-both-budgets first, then cheapest premium.
  • Each match shows price, estimated monthly/annual premium, a fit badge, a risk band,

and a link to the full property report.

  • Save any match with the star, or click Pull report to open the full report —

matches flow into your saved/dashboard surfaces like any other property.

Client-side controls let you re-sort (best-fit / premium / price / lowest-risk) and filter (max risk band, fits-budget-only).


What the flags mean

  • Modeled estimate — premiums here are modeled, so the whole result set carries the

"Modeled estimate" basis. Use it to compare and shortlist, not as a final bill.

  • Thin inventory — the candidate pool is only as deep as properties previously searched

in that area (there's no bulk area ingestion), so a quiet area can return a short list. The UI flags this so you know the list is short because of coverage, not because nothing fits.

  • Partial risk data — an un-assessed property gets a homeowners-only, low-confidence

estimate, flagged accordingly.


Metering

Shop-by-budget is metered like a property search (free tier: 1 lifetime; refunded if the search errors). Upgrade to run it repeatedly.


Troubleshooting

  • Short or empty list → thin inventory for that area, or budgets set too tight. Widen

the area or raise a ceiling. See Search & reports.

  • Premiums look approximate → they're a modeled estimate; that's expected.

Do this next

Open the best-fit match to confirm the details in its full report, then save your finalists.

Now AI-native

From hazard report to real carrier quotes & pricing

The CoverGuard Advisor reads the risk, finds the carriers writing it, and pulls back live quotes — with every number sourced and auditable.