BRRRR Calculator

What Is the BRRRR Method?

BRRRR stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. It's a real estate investing strategy where you purchase a distressed property, fix it up, rent it out, then do a cash-out refinance to pull out your original capital — and use it to buy the next deal.

Done correctly, BRRRR lets you build a rental portfolio while recycling the same capital over and over, dramatically accelerating wealth building compared to buying one property at a time with traditional financing.

The BRRRR Calculator Explained

This calculator walks through all 5 phases:

• Buy: Your purchase price, rehab costs, closing costs, and carrying costs = total cash deployed
• Rehab: The renovation work that brings the property to ARV
• Rent: Monthly rental income minus all operating expenses = NOI
• Refinance: Cash-out refi at your LTV (usually 70–80% of ARV) replaces your initial capital
• Repeat: If the refi loan covers your total cash in, you've achieved full capital recovery and can repeat

What Is "Cash Left In"?

Cash left in = Total cash deployed − Refi loan proceeds. If this number is zero or negative, you've achieved full capital recovery — meaning the property is essentially free (you got all your money back) and it's still generating rental income.

Most investors consider a BRRRR successful if they leave less than 20–25% of their original capital in the deal.

What Is a Good BRRRR Deal?

• Full capital recovery (cash left in ≤ 0): Elite deal. All cash pulled out, property still cash flows.
• 75%+ capital recovery: Strong deal. 25% of capital left in, high ROI on what remains.
• 50–75% recovery: Decent. Still beats buy-and-hold, but less capital available for the next deal.
• Below 50% recovery: Partial BRRRR. May be worth it if cash flow is strong, but limited scaling benefit.

BRRRR vs. Traditional Buy-and-Hold

In a traditional rental purchase, your down payment is permanently deployed — you can't reuse it without selling the property. BRRRR solves this by using the forced appreciation from rehab to justify a higher refi loan that returns your original capital.

The key advantage: you can theoretically own multiple properties with the same $50,000 if each BRRRR returns 100% of capital. Traditional investors would need $50,000 × number of properties.

BRRRR Refi: What to Expect

Most DSCR lenders offer 70–80% LTV on cash-out refis. At 75% LTV on a $220K ARV property, you can borrow $165,000. If your all-in cost was $162,000, you pull out everything plus a buffer.

Lenders typically require:

• Seasoning period of 6–12 months after purchase (some portfolio lenders waive this)
• DSCR of 1.20–1.25+ (NOI / annual debt service)
• Property in rentable condition with a signed lease
• Appraisal supporting the ARV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I BRRRR with hard money?

Yes — hard money is commonly used for the buy and rehab phase. Once the property is stabilized with a tenant, you refinance into a DSCR loan or conventional rental loan to pay off the hard money and recover your capital.

What LTV should I use for the refi?

70–75% is the standard range for DSCR and portfolio lenders. Some lenders go to 80% for strong borrowers and properties in primary markets. Use 75% as your base case and 70% as your conservative scenario.

What if I can't achieve full capital recovery?

That's fine. A partial BRRRR still outperforms buying a turnkey rental at market price. You're getting forced appreciation from rehab, a below-market purchase, and higher-than-market equity — even if you can't pull every dollar back out.

What's the difference between BRRRR and a fix-and-flip?

A flip is an exit strategy — you sell for profit and move on. BRRRR is a hold strategy — you keep the property as a rental and use the refi to fund the next deal. Many investors do both: flip properties that don't make sense to hold, BRRRR properties with strong rental numbers.