/personal-cfo

House template — full input questionnaire

For /personal-cfo house mode. Walk the user through this in a structured batch (one message, numbered questions). Don't proceed with placeholder numbers — bad inputs → dangerous output.

Property fundamentals

1. Property nickname (for filing — e.g., "Elm Street," "the white one")
2. Address (for the record — optional)
3. Purchase price ($)
4. Estimated closing costs (% of purchase, typical: 2–5%. If unknown, use 3% as a placeholder + flag for verification)
5. Down payment (% or $ — confirm which)

Financing

6. Mortgage rate (interest rate, %, fixed or ARM — note which)
7. Mortgage term (years — typical: 30, sometimes 15)
8. PMI (does down payment trigger PMI? typically yes if <20%. Estimate $50–$200/mo if applicable.)
9. Loan type (conventional / FHA / VA / jumbo — affects insurance + qualification)

Holding costs

10. Property taxes (annual $ — usually 1–2% of value but varies wildly by state/county. Get exact from listing or assessor.)
11. Homeowner's insurance (annual $ — typical: $1,200–$3,000)
12. HOA fees (monthly $, if any)
13. Utilities estimate (monthly $ — electric + water + gas + sewer + trash, owner portion if renting rooms)
14. Lawn / pest / pool / other recurring (monthly $)

Renovations (one-time, day 1)

15. List of planned renovations with line items. Common categories:
    • Kitchen: $X
    • Bathroom(s): $X each
    • Flooring: $X
    • Paint: $X
    • ADU buildout / refresh: $X
    • Roof / HVAC if needed: $X
    • Landscaping: $X
    • Permits / contractor markup buffer: add 15–25% on top of line-item subtotal
16. Timeline (months to complete — affects whether Year 1 income includes ADU)

Ongoing maintenance

17. Year-1 expected repairs ($ — inspection report informs this; older properties higher)
18. Annual maintenance budget ($ — rule of thumb: 1% of purchase price per year)

Rental scenarios

For each potential rental unit:

ADU

19. ADU monthly rent estimate ($ — verify against local comps)
20. ADU ready when? (immediately / after X months of renovation)
21. ADU utilities (owner pays / tenant pays / split — affects net cash flow)
22. ADU vacancy assumption (typical: 5–10% — higher for short-term)
23. Short-term vs long-term? (STR has higher gross but higher costs + management overhead)

Bedroom 1 (house-hack)

24. Bedroom 1 monthly rent ($)
25. Vacancy assumption (higher than ADU usually — typical 10–15% for room rentals)
26. Includes utilities? (usually yes for room rentals)

Bedroom 2 (if applicable)

27–29. Same as Bedroom 1

Property management

30. Self-manage or property manager? PM typically 8–12% of rent collected. STR can be 20–30%.

Tax

31. Combined household marginal tax bracket (federal % — affects mortgage interest deduction value)
32. State (for state income tax + property tax deduction cap awareness)
33. Filing status (married joint / single — affects SALT cap, standard deduction)

Personal context (for comparison)

34. Current monthly housing cost (rent or mortgage on existing place — this is the baseline)
35. Combined household income (for affordability + ratio sanity checks)
36. Cash on hand for down + closing + reserves ($ — should have 6 months reserves after closing)
37. Time horizon for the analysis (default: 10 years; also model 5 and 30)

Lifestyle (qualitative — not in the math, but in the report)

38. Comfort level with roommates (partner / spouse especially — this is a real variable in shared-living scenarios)
39. Distance / commute from this property (vs. current)
40. Schools / future kids planning (affects neighborhood weighting)
41. Exit plan (how long do you plan to live here? sell when? rent out fully later?)

After gathering

Output an inputs.yaml so the analysis is rerunnable:

property:
  nickname: "Elm Street"
  purchase_price: 850000
  down_payment_pct: 20
  closing_costs_pct: 3
financing:
  rate_pct: 6.5
  term_years: 30
  pmi_monthly: 0
holding:
  property_tax_annual: 12000
  insurance_annual: 1800
  hoa_monthly: 0
  utilities_owner_monthly: 250
renovations:
  - { item: "Kitchen refresh", cost: 25000 }
  - { item: "ADU buildout", cost: 65000 }
  - { item: "Buffer (20%)", cost: 18000 }
  timeline_months: 4
maintenance:
  year_1_repairs: 8000
  annual_pct_of_price: 1.0
rental:
  adu:
    monthly_rent: 2200
    ready_month: 5   # available starting month 5
    utilities: "tenant pays"
    vacancy_pct: 6
  bedroom_1:
    monthly_rent: 1100
    vacancy_pct: 12
    includes_utilities: true
  bedroom_2:
    monthly_rent: 1100
    vacancy_pct: 12
    includes_utilities: true
  property_management_pct: 0   # self-manage
tax:
  federal_marginal_pct: 32
  state: "CA"
  filing: "married_joint"
personal:
  current_housing_monthly: 3500
  household_income: 350000
  cash_for_close: 220000
  time_horizon_years: 10
lifestyle:
  roommate_comfort: "open to ADU; not comfortable with bedroom rentals year 1"
  commute_minutes: 25
  exit_plan: "live in 5–10 yr, then full STR rental"

This file lives in the workdir and is the source of truth. The report.md and comparison.md are generated from it.

When inputs are incomplete

Don't fake numbers. Mark missing as null and flag at the top of the report:

> ⚠️ Inputs incomplete. The following used placeholders or estimates — verify before acting:
> - `closing_costs_pct`: 3% (typical, not verified for this property)
> - `adu.monthly_rent`: $2,200 (estimate, verify via Zillow/Craigslist comps via /deep-research)
> - `tax.federal_marginal_pct`: 32% (estimated from income; verify with last year's return)