Fix and Flip Calculator
Start from the resale price and work backward — the purchase price is the output, not the input.
What This Calculator Does
Takes your after-repair value and subtracts the rehab budget, financing and holding costs, and the cost of selling, to show projected profit, margin, and the highest purchase price the numbers can justify.
Who Is This For
Investors underwriting a renovation project, contractors moving from building for others to buying their own, and anyone evaluating a distressed listing who wants a disciplined number instead of an optimistic one.
How It Works
Enter the realistic after-repair value drawn from comparable sales, your rehab budget, how long you expect to hold, and your financing, carrying, and selling costs. The calculator returns projected profit, margin, and the highest price you can pay and still hit your target.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the 70% rule?
A screening shortcut: pay no more than 70% of after-repair value minus the rehab budget. It is useful for deciding which listings deserve a closer look, and it is not underwriting. Once a deal is live, replace it with your actual costs — the rule quietly assumes a margin and a cost load that may not match your project.
Which costs do people forget?
Holding costs while the work runs — loan interest, taxes, insurance, utilities, association dues — plus the cost of selling: commission, documentary stamps, and title. Together these routinely erase the profit that a purchase-plus-rehab estimate seemed to show.
Does flipping work in Miami?
Selectively. Miami is more a condo and appreciation market than a value-add renovation market, and association rules and approval processes limit what can be done inside a unit. Flips here concentrate in specific single-family pockets where the housing stock is dated and the land carries the value.
How do I set the after-repair value?
From closed sales of comparable, similarly renovated properties in the same neighborhood — not from active listings, and not from what you hope the market will do. If the after-repair value needs the market to rise before the numbers work, the deal is a bet on timing rather than a renovation project.
How is a flip financed?
Usually with short-term investor debt priced well above a conventional mortgage, often with points at origination and interest-only payments during the hold. With benchmark 30-year rates near 6.6-6.7% in mid-2026, flip financing sits meaningfully higher, and every extra week on site costs real money.
What margin should I target?
Enough to absorb a rehab overrun and a slower sale than you planned, because both are common. Model a longer hold and a lower resale price alongside your base case. If the deal only works in the optimistic column, it is not a deal.