See exactly how much cash you'll have left in the deal after the refinance — and whether your returns justify the risk.
You buy a distressed property cheap, fix it up, rent it out, then refinance based on the new higher value — pulling your original cash back out to do the next deal.
Fill in the deal details above and click Calculate to see your BRRRR results.
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BRRRR — Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat — is the closest thing to a repeatable formula in real estate investing, but it only works when every step is grounded in real numbers instead of hopeful ones. The strategy lives or dies on two figures: your After Repair Value (ARV) and your total cash invested. Overestimate the first or underestimate the second, and a deal that looked like a home run on paper turns into cash trapped in a property for years.
Your ARV should come from a licensed appraiser, a broker price opinion (BPO), or at minimum three to five recent comparable sales within a half-mile of the property, adjusted for square footage, bed/bath count, and condition. Don't use Zillow's Zestimate as your ARV — it's a starting point for research, not a number to bet your capital on. Most conventional and portfolio lenders will refinance you at 70-75% of ARV, so a $20,000 swing in your ARV estimate can mean a $15,000 swing in how much cash you actually get back.
Say you buy a distressed 3-bed/1-bath for $75,000, put $25,000 into the rehab (kitchen, bath, flooring, roof patch), and pay $5,000 in closing and holding costs during the renovation — a total cost basis of $105,000. After the rehab, comparable renovated homes in the area are selling for $150,000, so your ARV is $150,000. A lender refinances you at 75% of ARV, or $112,500. That refinance pays off your total cost basis of $105,000 and puts $7,500 back in your pocket — meaning you've recovered 100% of your invested cash, plus $7,500 extra, and you still own a cash-flowing rental. That's the "grand slam" outcome this calculator is built to help you spot before you close.
I got my start rehabbing my own fixer-upper back in 1985, and I spent years after that as a licensed general contractor in California before becoming the right-hand man to an investor buying distressed properties straight through the 2007 crash. That downturn taught me the hard way that the rehab budget is where BRRRR deals actually get won or lost — not the purchase price.
The number I watch closest on this calculator isn't the cash-on-cash return, it's the "cash remaining in the deal" line. If that number is still high after you plug in a realistic ARV and a conservative refinance rate, the deal isn't ready yet — go back and renegotiate the purchase price or find more rehab efficiency before you close. A BRRRR deal should feel boring and mathematically obvious by the time you're ready to sign. If you're hoping the numbers work out, they won't.
A strong BRRRR deal typically involves pulling out most or all of your invested cash after refinancing (achieving infinite or near-infinite returns), generating positive monthly cash flow after the refinance, and acquiring the property at a significant discount to its after-repair value (ARV). Most investors target pulling out at least 80% of their total invested capital.
ARV stands for After Repair Value — the estimated market value of the property after all renovations are complete. Lenders typically allow you to refinance up to 70-75% of ARV, which is why buying at a deep discount and adding value through rehab is essential to the BRRRR strategy.
Most conventional lenders will refinance up to 75% of the after-repair value (ARV) on an investment property. Some portfolio lenders may go up to 80%. This means if your ARV is $200,000, you can typically refinance and pull out up to $150,000-$160,000.
Cash-back in a BRRRR deal refers to receiving more money from your refinance than your total out-of-pocket investment. If you invested $80,000 total (purchase + rehab + closing costs) and your refinance gives you $90,000, you have pulled out all your capital plus an extra $10,000 — this is the ideal BRRRR outcome.