About
Offer Reality Check (offerrealitycheck.com) exists because a relocation offer is usually sold as a headline number. Gross looks large. Rent in the destination city is someone else’s problem until you have already said yes.
The site is built around one path: gross → take-home → rent → decide. After federal tax and employee FICA, how does take-home line up with a public rent benchmark in the destination metro? If that ratio is ugly, you still might take the job — but you should see the ratio before you sign.
Who runs this
This is an independent planning tool, not a tax firm, brokerage, or recruiter. There is no sales team and no “book a call.” Corrections and methodology questions go to hello@offerrealitycheck.com. We publish sources on the Methodology page instead of hiding them behind a signup.
How we work
- Deterministic engine: browser and city examples use the same formulas. Python is authoritative; JavaScript mirrors tax year 2026 federal+FICA for supported states.
- HUD Fair Market Rent: housing defaults to official FMR for curated metros. Override with your listing anytime — FMR is a benchmark, not a lease.
- Current coverage: no broad state wage tax (AK, FL, NV, SD, TN, TX, WA, WY). We will not grade other states as if tax were zero.
- City pages: one worked example per metro we cover, plus the estimator for any other salary. We do not keep a warehouse of near-duplicate salary slugs in the public index.
Updates
Tax parameters track the modeled tax year (currently 2026). HUD FMR follows the ingested FY index. When IRS/SSA or HUD figures change, we refresh the engine, re-run article generation, and bump the date on this site.
What this is not
Not personalized tax, legal, or financial advice. Local income taxes, credits, itemized deductions, employer benefits, and many household details are out of scope. Read the Methodology and Disclaimer before using numbers for a decision.
Before you accept
The 5 questions before you accept checklist is a short pass/warn/fail pass over take-home, rent baseline, written bonus/equity, state-tax coverage, and a cash buffer if start date slips. It marks gaps in what you have checked — not a score of the offer, and not advice.
Decision Brief
After you run an estimate or compare, open a Decision Brief to lock tax year, filing status, states, and rent assumptions in a shareable link — so you and someone else can look at the same recomputed numbers.
Use the tools
Estimate take-home, compare two offers, read how we use the rent/net ratio, run before you accept, save a Decision Brief, or browse city examples.
Contact
Questions, data corrections, methodology notes, or press:
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