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Fix and flip calculator.
The full round trip. Purchase, rehab, the cost of the money, the carry, the cost of selling, and what is left.
Your deal, in focus
See how the numbers move.
Adjust the assumptions to explore your deal. Your estimate updates as you go.
Set purchase and rehab financing separately, capped by maximum loan to ARV. Actual LTC uses purchase plus rehab only; points, closing costs, interest, and carry are paid separately. Profit is before income tax. Include contingency in rehab and exclude loan interest from monthly carry. Annualized return is a simple extrapolation, not an IRR or a forecast.
Use nonnegative figures. Financing shares and rental expense allowances cannot exceed 100%. Loan limits depend on the value or cost basis shown beside each field.
Assumptions behind this estimate
Purchase and rehab financing percentages are separate inputs. The remaining purchase cost is your down payment and unfunded rehab is paid from your cash. Interest is charged on the drawn balance, since rehab is released in draws rather than handed over at closing. Return on cash counts the down payment, which is why it is a believable number rather than a headline one. The loan is the lower of purchase financing plus rehab financing and the ceiling against after repair value, and never more than the project costs. Selected rehab funds are reserved first; an ARV cap reduces purchase financing before rehab. The rate below is an assumption you can change rather than a quote, since pricing is set by credit, experience and the deal. Closing on both sides and the monthly carry are figures you enter: they open at ordinary market estimates rather than at my terms, and this is the one tool that charges a monthly carry, so it is the one to compare a hold against.
Interest assumes purchase or land funds at closing and an average of 50% of the financed work drawn during the entire hold. Earlier completion or a delay after the final draw increases interest. Draw fees, inspections, extensions, and reserves need to be included in your own cost estimates.
Net profit
Your numbers at a glance
Each bar compares an amount. Bars are not portions of a total.
Estimate only, based on the figures you entered. Not a quote, an approval, an appraisal or a commitment to lend, and subject to underwriting.
The model shows a positive spread, but that is not a margin-of-safety test. You are $20,500 above the 70% rule, and still clear $30,058 if the rehab holds at budget.
The modeled loan is limited by 85% purchase + 100% rehab. A higher requested advance cannot override the selected value or cost ceiling. This is a planning limit, not a lending decision.
Check my cash budget
Save these numbers, then adjust your inputs above.
Get terms on this deal
Estimate only, based on the figures you entered. Not a quote, an approval, an appraisal or a commitment to lend, and subject to underwriting.
This sends the numbers above straight to me for a person to underwrite. You get an initial written response in 24 to 48 hours, and a straight answer either way. Terms, if offered, are subject to underwriting and approval.
How to read it
What the number means.
Most flip calculators stop at after repair value minus purchase minus rehab and call the difference profit. That number has never once been the profit. It ignores the cost of the money, the months of carry, and everything that leaves on the way out in commission and seller closing, and those three together are usually the difference between a deal worth doing and a deal that pays you for a job.
This one counts them. Return on cash is calculated against the money you actually put in rather than against the purchase price, which is why it comes back as a believable figure rather than a headline one.
If the answer is thin, the honest response is usually a lower offer rather than a more optimistic finished value. The offer is the only variable you fully control.
Questions
Understanding your results.
What holding costs should I include?
Taxes, insurance, utilities and anything else that runs whether or not work is happening. They are entered separately from the loan interest because they continue at the same rate whether the project is moving or stalled, which is exactly what makes them dangerous.
How long should I assume for the hold?
Longer than the contractor says. The carry line is the one that punishes optimism, and adding two months to a five month assumption is the cheapest stress test available.
Why is my return on cash lower than I expected?
Usually because it is measured against the cash in the deal rather than against the purchase price, and because the sale costs are counted. Both are real, and a number that excludes them is a number that will not survive a closing statement.
What if the finished value is a guess?
Then the whole answer is a guess. Work the finished value out from comparable sales first with the ARV calculator, then come back.
Method
Where these numbers come from.
How to underwrite a fix and flip before you call a lender
The full pre-application check, in the order a lender will run it. If a deal survives this, it will survive underwriting.
The 70% rule in house flipping, and the deals where it lies to you
The 70% rule is a filter, not an underwriting model. Here is what it assumes, and the four situations where following it loses money.
Holding costs: the line item that quietly eats the profit
Holding costs are small every month and decisive over a project. They are also the number investors most reliably leave out of the model.
Other tools
The rest of them.
Maximum offer calculator, Rental cash-flow calculator, Cash-out refinance calculator, Hard money loan calculator, ARV calculator, BRRRR calculator, DSCR calculator, Rehab cost calculator, Construction loan calculator, Rental portfolio calculator, Transactional funding calculator.
This is an estimating tool. It runs arithmetic on the figures you enter using the assumptions stated above, and changing an assumption changes the answer. The result is not a quote, an approval, an appraisal, a valuation, or a prediction of what a property will sell for, and it does not commit anyone to lend. Costs, taxes and market conditions vary by location and change over time. Check the numbers that matter against your own contractor, agent and professional advisers before you commit to a deal.
When the numbers work
Get it underwritten.
A calculator cannot see your property. Estimate only, based on the figures you entered. Not a quote, an approval, an appraisal or a commitment to lend, and subject to underwriting. Send the deal and a person reads it: you get an initial written response in 24 to 48 hours, and a straight answer either way. Terms, if offered, are subject to underwriting and approval. No credit pull to get an answer.