How do I set up the BuyBox Chrome extension?

The BuyBox Chrome extension is the fastest way from a listing to an analysis: it reads the property off the listing page and opens it in the BuyBox web app as a pre-filled Quick Analysis, so you never retype an address. Setting it up takes about two minutes and you only do it once. You need Google Chrome on a computer (Chrome 110 or newer).

Step 1: load the extension into Chrome

Type chrome://extensions into Chrome's address bar and press Enter. In the top right corner, switch on Developer mode. Three buttons appear; click Load unpacked. Your computer's folder picker opens: choose the BuyBox extension folder (the one with manifest.json directly inside it, not a folder above it) and confirm. The button may read Select, Select Folder or Open depending on your computer. A card named BuyBox Property Capture appears with its switch on.

Load unpacked only shows while Developer mode is on. If you cannot see it, look for the Developer mode switch in the top right of the page.

Step 2: pin it to your toolbar

Chrome tucks new extensions into the Extensions menu, the puzzle piece to the right of the address bar. Open it and click the pin next to BuyBox Property Capture. The BuyBox icon now sits in your toolbar on every page, which is where you will click it from.

Step 3: send your first listing

Open a property's own listing page on a supported listing site: the page for one home, not a search results map. Click the BuyBox icon. A popup titled BuyBox Capture shows what it read: the photo, address, beds, baths, square footage and price. Check those against the listing, then click Send to BuyBox, and on the next screen Open in Web App. BuyBox opens in a new tab with a Quick Analysis filled in from the listing.

What happens when you click Open in Web App

• BuyBox opens in a new tab. If you are signed out, sign in first; BuyBox holds on to the listing and opens it as soon as you are in.
• The Quick Analysis arrives with the address, beds, baths, square footage and the list price as your purchase price. Rent and financing are yours to enter, then Analyze.
• The Install the extension step on your Home screen's Getting started list ticks itself off after your first import.

If something does not look right

• Navigate to a Property: you clicked the icon on a page the extension does not read. Open the listing's own page on a supported listing site and click again.
• Extraction Failed: the page had not finished loading. Refresh the listing and click the icon again.
• No BuyBox icon in the toolbar: it is not pinned yet. Open the puzzle piece and pin it (Step 2).
• Got a newer extension folder? Replace the old folder, then click the reload arrow on the BuyBox Property Capture card in chrome://extensions.

What the extension can see

It reads a listing page only when you click its icon, and it hands the property over only when you click Open in Web App, by opening BuyBox in a new tab. It asks Chrome for access to the page you are on and to the supported listing sites and their photo servers, nothing else, and it carries no analytics or tracking.

The extension copies what the listing says. Listings are not always right, so sanity-check beds, baths and square footage against the photos.

From here it is the normal flow: see Import a listing and Run your first analysis.