Fix & Flip Calculator

Flipping looks like the fastest path to a big check in real estate. It is, if you ignore the holding costs that bleed you at $2,000 a month, the contractor who disappears in month three, and the market that can shift while you are mid-rehab. The YouTube version of flipping is buy, renovate, sell, profit. The real version is buy, discover the foundation needs $15,000 you did not budget, carry the hard money for three extra months, and sell for 5% less than the comp you were counting on.

This calculator runs the honest math. Every cost (purchase, rehab, holding, selling) on one side. The ARV on the other. The number in between is either your profit or your education.

How fix and flip profit actually works

A flip is the simplest deal structure in real estate: buy below market, renovate, sell at the repaired price, pocket the difference. The concept fits on a napkin. The execution is where people lose money.

Four cost categories. One revenue number. Every flip in America reduces to this formula, whether it is a $150,000 starter in Memphis or a $600,000 gut-rehab in Austin. The ARV is the only number working in your favor. Everything else is money going out.

The problem is not the formula. The problem is that beginners estimate two of the four costs (purchase and rehab) and ignore the other two (holding and selling). On a typical flip, those "other two" eat $30,000 to $45,000. That is not a rounding error. That is the difference between a profit and a loss.

The full cost structure of a flip

Experienced flippers in markets like Phoenix, Tampa, and Charlotte will tell you the same thing: the deal is won or lost in the cost categories you underestimate. Here is what a typical flip actually costs:

Selling costs are the quiet killer. On a $320,000 sale at 8%, that is $25,600 gone before you see a dollar of profit. At 10% it is $32,000, more than many rehab budgets on smaller flips. And unlike rehab, you cannot negotiate this number down in any meaningful way. Agent commissions are what they are. Closing costs are what they are. This is the cost of exiting.

Worked example: the default numbers

The calculator starts with a $200,000 purchase, $50,000 rehab, a $320,000 ARV, a 6-month hold at $1,500/month, and 8% selling costs. This is a realistic deal in markets like Jacksonville, San Antonio, or parts of the Carolinas, not cherry-picked, not a disaster. Here is how it stacks:

Look at what just happened. The "hidden" holding and selling costs took $34,600 out of the deal, nearly as much as the profit itself. Without those two line items, this flip looks like a $70,000 payday. With them, it is $35,400. That gap is where first-time flippers get burned, and it is why running the full formula matters more than running the one you learned from a podcast.

What counts as a good flip margin

The industry average gross profit on a flip ran around 23% in 2025. That number is misleading. It includes hot markets like Phoenix and Tampa where prices rose during the hold period and flippers got gifted appreciation on top of the rehab margin. Strip that out and the rehab-only margin is closer to 12% to 18%.

For deals where you are creating value through renovation, not riding a wave, target at least a 15% to 20% return on total cost. In the worked example above, total cost is $284,600 and profit is $35,400. That is a 12.4% return. Acceptable for a 6-month project in a stable market, but thin. One bad estimate and you are working for free. Anything below 10% and you should ask yourself whether you would be better off putting that $250,000 into a rental and collecting checks while you sleep.

The 70% rule: a filter, not a strategy

The 70% rule is the back-of-napkin screen that experienced flippers use to decide whether a deal is worth underwriting at all:

With a $320,000 ARV and $50,000 rehab: ($320,000 × 0.70) − $50,000 = $174,000. The calculator defaults start at $200,000, which is $26,000 over the 70% rule threshold. That does not automatically kill the deal, but it tells you the margin is thinner than a textbook flip.

The 30% gap is meant to cover holding costs, selling costs, and your profit. If your actual costs come in below 30%, the rule was conservative and you are fine. If they come in above, as they do in this example, you are eating into margin or losing money.

In competitive markets like Charlotte, Raleigh, or Nashville, almost nothing on the MLS passes the 70% rule anymore. Off-market deals sometimes do. Wholesaler deals sometimes do. That is why deal flow matters as much as analysis. The best calculator in the world cannot help you if you are overpaying to get in. We built a dedicated 70% Rule Calculator for quick screening.

Holding costs: the silent killer

Holding costs do not feel expensive on day one. At $1,500 a month, it is a car payment. But they compound in a way that rehab costs do not: rehab is a fixed number that you spend and move on. Holding costs tick every single day the project is open, and they accelerate when the project drags.

A flip budgeted at 4 months that stretches to 8 does not just add $6,000 in direct holding costs. It also delays your capital from working on the next deal. If you are flipping with hard money at 12% to 14%, six months of interest on a $200,000 loan is $12,000 to $14,000, and that is just the interest. Add property taxes, insurance, utilities, and maybe HOA, and you are at $1,500 to $3,000 a month in total carry.

Here is a breakdown of what $1,500/month in holding costs typically looks like:

Notice the hard money interest alone exceeds the $1,500 default in the calculator. Go back up and adjust the holding cost slider to $2,500 and watch what happens to the profit. The $35,400 drops to $29,400. Now stretch the timeline to 8 months. You are at $25,400. That is how a deal that looked like $70,000 on a napkin becomes $25,000 in reality.

Financing a flip: hard money, private money, cash

How you fund the deal directly shapes your holding costs, your timeline pressure, and ultimately your profit. There is no free option. Each one trades one advantage for another.

Most flippers start with hard money because it is available without a track record. A lender in Tampa or Phoenix will fund a first-time flipper that a bank would not look at twice. The cost is steep: on a $200,000 loan at 13% with 2 points, the first month alone costs $2,167 in interest plus $4,000 in origination points at closing. That is why timeline discipline is everything with hard money. The clock is running at $2,167 a month whether your contractor shows up or not.

Private money is cheaper but harder to access. It usually comes from someone who knows you: a family member, a friend, a local investor who has seen you execute. Rates are negotiable, terms are flexible, and the relationship matters more than the spreadsheet. If you plan to flip more than two or three deals, building a private money network is the single best thing you can do for your margins.

Timeline discipline: every month costs you money

Go back to the calculator above and increase the holding period from 6 to 10 months. Watch the profit drop by $6,000 at $1,500/mo , or $10,000 if you adjusted the holding costs to $2,500. That is the real cost of a delayed permit, a contractor who no-shows for two weeks, or a listing that sits on the market in a cooling neighborhood.

The flippers who consistently make money in markets like Atlanta, Phoenix, and Charlotte share one trait: they move fast. Contractor lined up before closing. Permits submitted within days. Listing photos scheduled before the last coat of paint dries. They treat the project like it is on a meter, because it is.

If you cannot control the timeline, at least budget for it. Add two months to your best-case rehab estimate and price the deal with that timeline. If it still profits at 8 months, it is a deal. If it only works at 4, you are betting on perfection, and perfection does not exist in construction.

Flip vs. BRRRR: when to sell, when to keep

Every flip involves a decision that most flippers never consciously make: should I sell this, or should I refinance and rent it? The BRRRR strategy (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) uses the same front end as a flip (buy cheap, renovate) but skips the sale and holds the property as a rental instead.

The math is different in ways that matter. A flip gives you a lump sum now. A BRRRR gives you monthly cash flow and long-term appreciation. A flip costs you 8% to 10% in selling costs. A BRRRR avoids that entirely but keeps your capital locked up until the refinance, and the refinance DSCR determines how much you get back.

In high-rent markets like parts of the Midwest (Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City) the BRRRR math often beats the flip math because rents are strong relative to price. In appreciation markets like Austin, Boise, or parts of Florida, flipping can make sense because the ARV premium justifies the selling costs.

The honest answer: run both calculators on every deal. Sometimes the property that looks like a mediocre flip is an excellent rental. Sometimes the property that would rent well is worth more as a flip because the ARV is unusually high. The numbers will tell you. Your ego should not.

The current flip market: tighter but not dead

Flip margins tightened significantly from the 2021-2022 peak. Three forces are squeezing:

• Higher acquisition prices. Buying at a discount is harder when retail buyers and institutional flippers are both aggressive. The 70% rule deal that was common in 2020 is rare on-market today in cities like Phoenix, Tampa, or Charlotte. Wholesalers and direct mail are where those deals live now.
• Elevated hard money rates. At 12% to 14%, every month of holding costs more than it did when rates were 8% to 10%. A $200,000 loan at 13% costs $2,167/mo in interest alone. At 9% (the 2020 rate), that same loan cost $1,500. The difference over a 6-month project is $4,000 in pure margin compression.
• Pickier buyers on the exit. With mortgage rates above 7%, your buyer pool on the resale is smaller. Properties in fringe neighborhoods sit longer, which adds holding costs and sometimes forces a price cut. The days of listing a flip and getting three offers in a weekend are market-dependent, not guaranteed.

None of this means flipping is dead. It means the margin for error is narrower, which means the underwriting has to be tighter. Use the calculator above to stress-test your deal: drop the ARV by 5%, add 2 months to the hold, bump rehab by 15%. If the deal still profits under those pessimistic assumptions, it is a real deal. If it only works with perfect numbers, walk away. There will be another one.