House Flipping Calculator
Calculate flip project profit, ROI, and 70% rule pass/fail from purchase price, rehab budget, holding cost, and after-repair value. Standard BRRRR and flip math.
What a comparable rehabbed house sold for in the last 90 days. Use the low end of comps, not the high end.
Include a 15% contingency; most beginners underestimate rehab by 20% or more.
Interest + property tax + insurance + utilities during the rehab and sale.
Agent commissions typically 5-6% plus 1-3% other costs.
The 70% rule (max purchase ≤ ARV × 0.70 − rehab) is an investor-community heuristic from BiggerPockets and BRRRR references, not regulation. It builds cushion for rehab overruns and ARV drift.
About this tool
Flipping economics live or die on three numbers: after-repair value, total cost to get there, and holding period. Beginners get one wrong more often than you would think. Overestimate ARV by 10% and a tight flip turns into a break-even deal. Underestimate rehab by 20% and the project goes from profit to loss. This calculator pins down all three so you can walk a property with the exit price in view instead of the purchase price.
Enter the conservative ARV (what a comparable rehabbed house sold for in the last 90 days), the purchase price, the rehab budget, how long you expect to hold the property, monthly carrying costs during the hold, and buy/sell closing-cost percentages. The tool computes total cost, project profit, ROI on invested cash, and checks the deal against the industry-standard 70% rule.
The 70% rule is an underwriting shortcut: max purchase price should be at most 70% of ARV minus rehab cost. It builds in a cushion for unexpected rehab overruns, carrying cost drift, and ARV drop from a cooling market. Deals that pass the rule comfortably (65% or better) absorb bad news. Deals priced at 72-75% of ARV minus rehab work only if nothing goes wrong, which is rarely the case on a rehab project. See the cash-on-cash return calculator for the hold-and-rent alternative path on the same property.
How it works
Total cost = purchase_price + rehab_budget + buy_closing + sell_closing + holding_cost. Buy closing is a user-entered percentage of purchase price (typically 2-4% including loan fees, title insurance, transfer taxes, attorney). Sell closing is a user-entered percentage of ARV (typically 6-9% including agent commissions at 5-6% plus 1-3% other). Holding cost = monthly_holding × months_to_hold, covering loan interest, property tax accrual, insurance, utilities, and lawn care.
Project profit = ARV - total_cost.
ROI = profit / investor_cash × 100, where investor cash = purchase_price + rehab_budget + buy_closing + holding_cost. Sell closing is excluded from the ROI denominator because it comes out of sale proceeds, not investor cash.
The 70% rule max-purchase-price formula is ARV × 0.70 - rehab_budget. It is a heuristic from BiggerPockets and the BRRRR investor community, not regulation. Some aggressive investors use 75% in hot markets; conservative flippers use 65% to leave more margin for error.
Examples
Mid-market rehab with a healthy ARV target. The 70% rule caps the max at $195,000 and the purchase at $200,000 fails the rule by $5,000. Still shows $57,000 profit on paper, but the thin margin makes this deal fragile; a 10% rehab overrun or 3% ARV slip wipes the profit.
A strong deal. The 70% rule passes by $21,000 of room, leaving meaningful cushion for rehab overruns or a cooler market. Profit $72,400 and ROI near 39% are what flipping looks like when the underwriting discipline is there.
A deal that looks fine at a glance because of the big ARV but fails the 70% rule by $70,000. Total cost $491,400 against $500,000 ARV leaves only $8,600 of paper profit, and an 8-month hold with $2,500/month carrying costs means any delay turns this into a loss.
When to use
Use this on every property you walk before making an offer. Run it first with conservative assumptions: ARV at the low end of comps, rehab budget with a 15% contingency, holding a month longer than you think. If the deal still works under those assumptions, submit the offer. If not, move on. Pair with the cap rate calculator if you are comparing the flip path to a hold-and-rent strategy on the same property.
Related concepts
- The 70% rule : BRRRR and flip underwriting heuristic
- BRRRR method : Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat
Frequently asked questions
Is the 70% rule a hard rule?
No. It is a heuristic from investor communities, not regulation. Experienced investors sometimes buy at 72-75% of ARV minus rehab in hot markets. Most beginners should stick closer to 70% or tighter because their rehab estimates and ARV estimates are usually optimistic.
Should I include my labor in the rehab budget?
If you are doing work yourself (sweat equity), you have two options. Either include imputed labor in the rehab budget at contractor rates and count a larger profit number, or leave labor out and call the lower profit "pay for your time." Do not double-count. Most solo flippers do the latter.
Does this work for BRRRR holds?
Partially. The BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) hold strategy uses the same pre-rehab math, but the refinance step replaces the sell step. Instead of computing profit at sale, compute the cash-out refinance amount minus your invested cash. Use the cash-on-cash return calculator for the rent-hold side after the refinance.
Sources
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Closing costs
(primary, accessed Apr 16, 2026)
Federal agency reference for typical closing cost ranges on buy-side real estate transactions.
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