Evaluating a real estate transaction based on preliminary data about the transaction. An evaluation system employs a transaction evaluator software module that can receive input about a customer and a type of financial product. The transaction evaluator software module also has access to a variety of data sources defining parameters for the investing institution. When the transaction evaluator receives input for a customer, it retrieves the relevant parameters for investing and performs a series of calculations to determine the likelihood that the customer's transaction will be approved. The results of the calculations can be displayed to the user in a graphical format for a range of transaction values. The graphical presentation of the calculations assists the user in determining whether to proceed with the transaction.