House Flipping Calculator

How to Use This House Flipping Calculator

Enter four core numbers: your purchase price, the ARV (what the property will sell for after repairs), your estimated rehab cost, and your expected hold period. The calculator automatically adds a contingency buffer to your rehab, estimates financing and holding costs, and computes your all-in profit and ROI.

The result also shows whether your deal passes the 70% rule — the most widely-used quick-filter in house flipping. If your purchase price is at or below 70% of ARV minus rehab costs, the deal typically has enough margin to absorb overruns and still profit.

What Is a Good ROI on a House Flip?

Most experienced flippers target a minimum 15–20% profit margin (net profit divided by ARV). Below 15% leaves too little cushion for overruns, delays, or market softness. A deal with a 20%+ margin can absorb most surprises and still be profitable.

For cash-on-cash ROI, flippers typically want to see 20–30%+ annualized — if your flip should return 10–15% on cash invested. Deals below 10% cash-on-cash are usually better deployed elsewhere.

The 70% Rule Explained

The 70% rule is a quick formula: Maximum Offer = (ARV × 0.70) ‒ Rehab Cost. It's designed to leave roughly 20–25% gross margin after accounting for acquisition, holding, and selling costs. It's a filter, not a guarantee — use it to quickly eliminate deals that can't work before doing deep analysis.

Keep in mind: the 70% rule works best in typical markets. In competitive markets with low ARVs or thin rehab budgets, you may need to tighten to 65%. In high-ARV markets with efficient contractors, 72–75% can still work.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate is this house flipping calculator?

This calculator is designed for quick deal screening, not final underwriting. It estimates holding and transaction costs based on your inputs but uses simplified assumptions. For full accuracy, use FlipIQ's Cost Estimator (which breaks out every rehab line item) or the Deal Analyzer (which adds deal scoring,orimnal analysis, and lender PDFs).

What rehab cost should I enter?

Use your best contractor estimate — or, if you don't have one yet, estimate by condition: light cosmetic work runs $15–25/sqft, medium renovation $30–50/sqft, and heavy gut rehab $60–100/sqft. Always add the contingency buffer (10–15% minimum). Hidden damage and scope creep are the #1 cause of blown flip budgets.

How do I calculate ARV?

ARV is what the property will sell for after repairs, based on comparable sales (comps) of similar homes in the same neighborhood that sold in the last 90 days. Use our ARV Calculator to estimate this from recent comps, or ask a local agent to run a CMA (comparative market analysis).

What's the difference between this and the 70% Rule Calculator?

The 70% Rule Calculator tells you the maximum you should offer for a property given a target ARV and rehab cost. This House Flipping Calculator works in reverse — given what you're actually paying, it shows whether the deal produces enough profit. Use the 70% rule to set your offer, then use this calculator to verify the deal works at that price.