---
title: "How to use SearchPro: What-If Qualification (B1124-002)"
description: "Search as if you changed the deal — and the trade-off between payment and cash."
url: https://homes-support.padzilly.com/en/articles/2-how-to-use-searchpro-what-if-qualification-b1124-002
collection: "Using Padzilly"
updated: 2026-10-01
language: en
alternates: [es]
---

# How to use SearchPro: What-If Qualification (B1124-002)

Search as if you changed the deal — and the trade-off between payment and cash.

**SearchPro** lets you search as if you had changed the deal. Offer a little less, put a little more down, and Padzilly recalculates every home in the results — so homes that were out of reach move into it.

That is the "what-if" part. Instead of filtering by a fixed price, you are filtering by what you could qualify for under a different structure.

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### What you need first

**An account and a profile.** SearchPro measures homes against your numbers, so those numbers have to exist. Browsing as a guest does not give you a profile, and the Payment and Cash Needed filters stay locked until there is one.

Then there are two levels of accuracy:

**Without a lender approval.** Padzilly gives you a **Temporary Loan Profile**, which assumes a **conventional loan with 5% down** and uses the payment and funds limits you entered. Good enough to explore seriously.

**With a lender approval, through LoanLink.** Padzilly uses your lender's **actual program and terms** — your rate, your loan type, your limits and your lender's own property-tax rules. These are the accurate results, and the ones worth making decisions on.

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### Your two limits

In **Profile → Homebuying Budget**:

**Max Monthly Payment** — the most you want to pay each month, including taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance and any HOA fee.

**Funds available** — your total cash to bring: down payment plus closing costs, less any credits.

These two become your **Payment** and **Cash Needed** filters.

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### The core filters

**Filter by Payment** — only homes at or below your payment limit.

**Filter by Cash Needed** — only homes at or below your cash limit.

Turn on either, or both. With both on, everything left on screen clears both tests.

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### The what-if controls

This is what makes SearchPro different from a filter panel.

**Lower the price.** Adjust the price and watch both the payment and the cash needed come down together. Useful for answering "what if I offered under asking across the board?"

**Increase the down payment.** The screen puts it plainly: _you can increase down payment for your search_, and _adjust your down payment to see savings_.

Be aware of the trade-off, because it catches people out: **more money down lowers your payment but raises your cash needed.** The two filters move in opposite directions. If you are tight on cash, a bigger down payment makes your list shorter, not longer.

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### Searching below your approval

You do not have to shop at your ceiling. Two checkboxes in your budget — _Search with lower payment_ and _Search with less available cash_ — let you set your own lower limits, and SearchPro then works against your number instead of the bank's.

You can lower them, never raise them. The cap belongs to your lender.

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### Where OfferPro takes over

SearchPro changes the assumptions across your whole search. **OfferPro** changes one specific house — and it goes further, letting you add a **seller contribution**, which SearchPro does not model.

So the natural sequence is: SearchPro to find the homes that are plausible, then OfferPro on the one you like to build the actual offer.

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### The point of all this

Most home searches show you what is for sale. SearchPro shows you what you could buy, and lets you test the structures that would make more of it possible. A home that fails at asking price with 5% down may pass at 3% under asking with a seller contribution — and you will never discover that by scrolling a price filter.