House Flipping Calculator (USA)
Detailed profit analysis for house flippers. Calculate Net Profit, ROI, and your Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO) using the 70% Rule.
Holding costs include loan interest, property taxes, insurance, and utilities paid each month during the project.
The 70% Rule: pay no more than 70% of ARV minus estimated rehab costs. A positive variance means you're under the rule — green light.
How to Use the House Flipping Calculator
In under two minutes you'll see your net profit, ROI, annualised return, and 70% Rule verdict — plus a full cost breakdown and a two-page PDF report ready to share with your lender or partners.
Enter property & value details
Input your purchase price and After Repair Value (ARV). Use the range sliders to quickly stress-test different acquisition prices and see how your MAO and profit margin shift in real time before you make an offer.
Set your rehab budget & timeline
Enter your total rehab cost (labour and materials) and your expected project duration in months. The calculator uses your timeline to compute total holding costs automatically — one of the most frequently underestimated line items on any flip.
Add acquisition & carrying costs
Input your one-time buying costs (closing, title, inspection), your monthly holding costs (loan interest, taxes, insurance, utilities), and your selling cost percentage. Every dollar counts — the calculator shows precisely how each cost erodes your margin.
Review your analysis & download PDF
The results panel shows your net profit hero card, 70% Rule MAO verdict (green if under, red if over), cost breakdown bars, ROI and annualised ROI, and two interactive charts. Download the two-page PDF to bring to your lender meeting or partner discussion.
Everything This Calculator Shows You
Most flip calculators give you a single profit number. This one gives you the full picture — every cost line, the 70% Rule verdict, annualised return, and a professional PDF — so you can make a confident decision before you put a dollar at risk.
Net Profit & ROI
Your estimated net profit after every cost — purchase, rehab, buying, holding, and selling — displayed as a hero figure with colour-coded green (profitable) or red (loss). ROI is shown as both a total percentage and an annualised rate so you can compare deals of different durations on equal footing.
70% Rule & MAO Verdict
The calculator applies the 70% Rule automatically and shows your Maximum Allowable Offer alongside a live badge — green "Under MAO" or red "Over MAO" — so you can see at a glance whether your purchase price satisfies the rule before submitting an offer.
Annualised ROI
A 6-month flip with 12% ROI and a 14-month flip with 12% ROI are very different deals. Annualised ROI scales your return to a 12-month equivalent so you can rank competing projects by their true capital efficiency — not just their gross return.
Full Cost Breakdown Bars
Five proportional bars — Purchase, Rehab, Holding, Selling, Buying — show the relative weight of each cost as a share of total project investment. The visual makes it immediately obvious which cost category is consuming the most margin and where to focus negotiations.
Interactive Charts
A donut chart breaks total project spend across all five cost categories. A bar chart puts total project cost, ARV, and net profit side by side. Both charts update instantly as you adjust any input, making scenario planning fast and visual.
2-Page PDF Report
Page 1 covers the hero profit figure, project inputs in a two-column table, cost breakdown with proportion bars, and the 70% Rule six-card summary grid. Page 2 is the full line-item cost schedule with highlighted totals — ready to drop into a loan package or investor deck.
House Flipping in the USA — Key Benchmarks
Three Flippers Who Should Run Every Deal Through This
Whether you're analysing your first deal or your fiftieth, running the numbers before you bid is the single habit that separates profitable flippers from break-even ones. These three profiles show how the calculator fits different experience levels and deal types.
You've found a distressed property and you're ready to make your first offer — but you're not sure how to structure the deal, what the 70% Rule actually means in practice, or whether your rehab budget leaves enough margin for profit. This calculator walks you through every cost category and tells you instantly whether your proposed purchase price satisfies the rule before you write a check.
- Start with the 70% Rule MAO as your anchor — never bid above it on your first few deals
- Use conservative rehab estimates: first-timers almost always underestimate by 20-30%
- Set holding costs higher than you think — budget for at least 8 months even on a 6-month plan
- Download the PDF and review every line item with your contractor and lender before closing
You're running 3-6 flips simultaneously and evaluating multiple opportunities every week. Speed of analysis matters — you need to know within minutes whether a deal is worth pursuing further. This calculator lets you stress-test purchase price, rehab budget, and hold timeline with sliders in real time, so you can quickly filter out deals that don't clear your annualised ROI hurdle and focus energy on the ones that do.
- Use annualised ROI (not just total ROI) to rank competing deals — it accounts for capital tied up over time
- Stress-test rehab by running the calculator at base, +15%, and +30% rehab cost to find your break-even
- Model the deal at your actual hard money rate — do not use the prime rate or bank rate for holding costs
- Share the PDF with your acquisition team so everyone evaluates deals on the same assumptions
You need to know what an investor will pay for a distressed property before you bring them the deal or list it. Running the numbers from the buyer's perspective — using the 70% Rule and realistic rehab estimates — tells you exactly what the MAO is and what discount from market value a flipper will need to make the deal pencil. Present the PDF to your investor buyers to show you've done the analysis.
- Use the MAO output as your pricing ceiling when assigning contracts to investor buyers
- Run the calculator at multiple ARV points (conservative, moderate, optimistic) to show scenario range
- Include realistic holding and selling costs — buyers will run their own numbers and low-ball assumptions erode trust
- Download the PDF and attach it to your deal package — it signals professionalism and speeds up buyer decisions
7 Things Every House Flipper Should Know Before They Bid
The difference between a profitable flip and a break-even one often comes down to assumptions made before the purchase. These seven tips will help you use this calculator correctly and avoid the most expensive mistakes in residential house flipping.
Get your ARV verified by a local agent or appraiser before you use it
ARV is the single most impactful number in the entire analysis — and the easiest to get wrong. Overestimating ARV by 10% on a $400,000 flip means you think you have $40,000 more margin than you actually do. Always pull 3-5 sold comps within 0.5 miles, closed within 90 days, with similar square footage and bedroom count. Have a local agent or licensed appraiser review your comps before you put the ARV into the calculator.
Add 20-30% to your rehab estimate as a contingency buffer
Every experienced flipper has a renovation horror story — hidden structural issues, outdated electrical discovered behind drywall, city permit delays adding months to the timeline. Build a 20% contingency into your rehab number before entering it into the calculator, and model 30% for properties over 40 years old or those with known deferred maintenance. If the deal still works with the buffer, it's a genuine opportunity. If it breaks, walk away.
Your holding costs are almost certainly higher than you think
Holding costs are the most underestimated line item for first-time flippers. A $250,000 hard money loan at 12% accrues $2,500/month in interest alone — before property taxes, insurance, and utilities. On a 6-month project that's $15,000+ before you've paid a single contractor invoice. Enter your actual monthly holding costs into the calculator and watch how quickly a 2-month delay chips away at your profit margin.
Use 7% selling costs as your base case, not 6%
Agent commissions are typically 5-6% in the US, but transfer taxes, title insurance for the buyer, home warranty, staging, and any concessions routinely push total selling costs to 7-8%. A 1% difference on a $380,000 sale is $3,800 directly out of your profit. Model 7% as your base case and 9% as your downside scenario — conservative exit assumptions are one of the most consistent habits of profitable long-term flippers.
Compare deals on annualised ROI, not just total ROI
A 15% ROI on a 5-month flip is a 36% annualised return. The same 15% ROI on a 15-month project is only 12% annualised. Your capital is working three times harder in the first deal. When you have multiple opportunities to evaluate, always rank them by annualised ROI — it accounts for the time value of money and the opportunity cost of capital tied up in a long project.
Never bid above the MAO unless you have a very specific reason
The 70% Rule exists precisely because flips rarely go exactly to plan. The 30% buffer between your purchase price and ARV is designed to absorb rehab overruns, holding cost extensions, and a soft exit market. If you exceed the MAO, you're betting everything on the deal going perfectly. That's not investing — it's gambling. Use this calculator to find the MAO and negotiate hard to stay under it, even if the seller pushes back.
Download the PDF and review it with your lender before you close
The two-page PDF report includes your full assumption set, line-item cost schedule, and 70% Rule summary. Bring it to your lender meeting and ask them to confirm the holding cost assumptions match your loan terms. Hard money lenders often charge fees, origination points, and prepayment structures that change your effective monthly cost. Catching a discrepancy before closing is far cheaper than discovering it at month four of a six-month project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about how house flip profitability is calculated, what the 70% Rule actually means, and how to interpret every output this calculator produces.
For informational and estimation purposes only. All calculations assume constant monthly holding costs, a single lump-sum rehab expenditure, and a sale at the full ARV with no concessions beyond the stated selling cost percentage. Actual project costs, timelines, sale prices, and profit outcomes will vary based on market conditions, contractor performance, financing terms, permit timelines, buyer demand, and factors not captured in this model. Rehab cost estimates are subject to significant variance — actual costs routinely differ from initial budgets by 20% or more. The 70% Rule is a widely used heuristic and does not guarantee profitability on any individual deal. Always consult a licensed real estate professional, contractor, and financial advisor before making any investment decision. HomeExpertly is not a licensed broker, lender, or investment advisor.