BRRRR Calculator
How much of my cash comes back out at refinance? Buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat — including cash left in the deal after refi.
Cash left in the deal
$30,403
Buy and rehab
What the project costs before any financing is applied.
What you pay for it as-is
Materials, labour and permits
Title, recording, inspection, lender fees at purchase
Use your lender's seasoning period if it is longer than the rehab
Taxes, insurance and utilities while it is empty
Short-term money
What funds the purchase and the work until the refinance pays it off.
All cash removes points and interest, and puts the whole all-in cost out of pocket
Released in draws against completed work
Interest only — no principal is paid before the refinance
Charged on the full loan amount at closing
The refinance
The long-term loan that pays off the short-term one and returns your cash.
What the appraiser will call it once the work is done
Most cash-out investor refinances land at 70-75%
Of the new loan. Appraisal, title, origination and prepaids.
Rent it
How the property performs once it is tenanted and refinanced.
One turnover a year is roughly 6-8%
Annual, at the reassessed value — not the seller's bill
Annual landlord policy
Of rent collected. Enter it even if you self-manage — your time is the cost.
Of scheduled rent. A rehabbed house still breaks.
Roof, HVAC, water heater. Set it to zero and the return is always too good.
HOA, lawn, pest, any utility you keep in your name
Cash left in the deal
$30,403
Of $38,928 invested, this much stays tied up after the refinance.
- Cash you put in
- $38,928
- Cash returned at refi
- $8,525
Most of your cash is back and the return is solid
$8,525 came back at the refinance and the $30,403 still in the deal earns 10.1% a year in cash flow — before principal paydown or any appreciation.
What the project costs you
- Purchase price
- $132,500
- Rehab budget
- $48,500
- Buy-side closing costs
- $3,850
- Holding carryTaxes, insurance and utilities across 6 mo
- $4,110
- Loan points
- $3,223
- Loan interest during the holdPurchase draw for the full hold, rehab draw for about half of it
- $7,870
- All-in cost
- $200,053
- Short-term loan advanced
- − $161,125
- Cash you put in
- $38,928
Where the all-in cost goes
- Purchase66%
- Rehab24%
- Closing & carry4%
- Cost of the money6%
The refinance
- Appraised value at refinance
- $232,000
- New loan at 75% LTV
- $174,000
- Less short-term payoff
- − $161,125
- Less refinance closing costs
- − $4,350
- Cash returned to you
- $8,525
- Cash still in the deal
- $30,403
- Equity you still holdAppraised value less the new loan
- $58,000
What happens to the cash you put in
- Returned at refinance22%
- Left in the deal78%
The number the appraisal has to hit
- All-in cost as a share of ARV
- 86.2%
- Refinance LTV net of costsGet the line above under this one and every dollar comes back
- 73.1%
- Appraisal needed for a full cash-out
- $273,576
- Gap to the value you entered
- $41,576 short
The rental, once it is refinanced
- Scheduled rent
- $28,740
- Vacancy at 6%
- − $1,724
- Rent collected
- $27,016
- Taxes
- − $2,640
- Insurance
- − $1,480
- Management
- − $2,161
- Maintenance
- − $1,437
- Capital reserve
- − $1,437
- Other operating costs
- − $540
- Net operating income
- $17,320
- Debt service on the new loan$1,187 a month, principal and interest
- − $14,244
- Annual cash flow
- $3,077
What the finished deal returns
- Monthly cash flow
- $256
- Cash-on-cash on what is left in
- 10.1%
- Cap rate on appraised valueUnlevered — what the property earns before any financing
- 7.5%
- Debt service coverageMost rental lenders want 1.20 or better
- 1.22
- Cash flow to recover what is left inHow long until the cash still in the deal has come back through rent
- 9 yr 11 mo
If the appraisal comes in somewhere else
The appraisal is the input you control least and the one the whole exit rests on. Five points either way moves the cash you get back by thousands.
| Appraisal | Cash left in | Cash flow / mo | Cash-on-cash |
|---|---|---|---|
| $208,800 | $47,368 | $375 | 9.5% |
| $220,400 | $38,885 | $316 | 9.7% |
| $232,000yours | $30,403 | $256 | 10.1% |
| $243,600 | $21,920 | $197 | 10.8% |
| $255,200 | $13,438 | $138 | 12.3% |
How this is calculated
A BRRRR is two calculations joined at the refinance. The first asks what the project costs you in cash; the second asks how much of that cash the new loan gives back.
all-in cost = purchase + rehab + buy-side closing + holding carry + loan points + loan interest
Short-term financing is modelled as two balances, because that is how a rehab loan actually funds. The purchase portion draws on day one and accrues for the whole hold; the construction portion is released against completed work, so it is outstanding for roughly half the project. The carry is therefore purchase draw × monthly rate × months + rehab draw × monthly rate × months ÷ 2. Charging the whole rehab balance for the whole term is the common simplification and it overstates the cost of every BRRRR, which matters because it lands directly on the headline.
Cash invested is the all-in cost less whatever the short-term lender advanced. At refinance, cash returned = (ARV × LTV) − short-term payoff − refinance closing costs, and the number this page exists for is cash left in = cash invested − cash returned. It can be zero, which is the outcome the strategy is named for, and it can be negative, which means the refinance handed you more than you spent — real, and worth seeing stated plainly rather than as a return figure that has stopped being meaningful.
Once the property is refinanced it is an ordinary rental, so the second half of the page runs the standard pro forma against the new loan: NOI = collected rent − operating expenses and cash flow = NOI − debt service. Management is taken on rent actually collected; maintenance and capital reserves are taken on scheduled rent, because a roof wears out whether or not the unit was occupied. Cash-on-cash divides that cash flow by the cash still in the deal — and where nothing is left in, the page says so rather than dividing by zero.
The break-even appraisal is that whole chain solved backwards for value: ARV needed = all-in cost ÷ (LTV × (1 − refinance cost rate)). It is the single most useful number on the page before you buy, because it is the one you can check against comparable sales while the property is still someone else’s problem.
Common questions
What does an infinite return actually mean?
It means the refinance handed back every dollar you put in, so the cash still in the deal is zero or less and the return has no denominator. It is a real outcome and it is the one BRRRR is built to produce, but it is not free money: the equity you would have held is now the bank's loan, the payment is larger, and the cash flow that survives it is thinner. A deal that returns all your cash and cash flows near zero is a deal with no margin for a bad tenant.
Why does the calculator charge interest on only half the rehab draw?
Because a rehab loan is drawn in stages. The purchase portion funds on day one and accrues for the whole hold, but the construction portion is released against completed work, so on average it is outstanding for roughly half the project. Charging the full rehab balance for the full term overstates the carry by thousands on a typical deal and makes every BRRRR look worse than it is. If your lender funds the whole rehab up front, set the rehab share to zero and add the rehab balance times the rate divided by twelve, times the months you hold it, to your monthly carry — that is the whole of the correction. Do not lengthen the holding period to approximate it: the holding period drives the purchase draw and the carry as well, so doubling it charges twice for things that did not change.
Why is my cash-out lower than the loan amount?
Two things come out of the new loan before you see any of it, and this page deducts both: the payoff of whatever financed the purchase and rehab, and the closing costs on the refinance itself. On a deal financed with hard money the payoff is usually most of the new loan, which is why the appraisal has to clear a much higher number than people expect. The break-even appraisal figure on this page is that number. Accrued interest is handled differently here — it is added to your all-in cost rather than netted out of the loan, which reaches the same cash-left-in figure. There is no field for an exit fee or a prepayment penalty, so if your short-term lender charges one, add it to the buy-side closing costs.
What appraisal do I need to get all my cash back?
Enough that the new loan, after refinance costs, covers both the payoff and everything you paid out of pocket. Rearranged, that is your total all-in cost divided by the refinance LTV net of costs — at 75% LTV with 2.5% in costs, an all-in of one dollar needs about one dollar thirty-seven of appraised value. The practical version of the same rule is the all-in as a percentage of ARV shown on this page: get it under the net LTV and the cash comes back.
Does a seasoning period change the numbers?
It changes when you can refinance, not what the refinance pays. Many lenders will only lend against the appraised value after you have owned the property for six or twelve months; before that they lend against what you paid, which on a BRRRR is far less and usually returns nothing. Set the holding period to the seasoning your lender requires rather than to the length of the rehab, because you are paying carry and interest for the whole of it either way.
Should I refinance to the maximum LTV the lender allows?
Not automatically. The maximum LTV returns the most cash and leaves the least cushion: a larger loan is a larger payment, a lower DSCR and a thinner cash flow, and if values slip you are close to owing what the property is worth. Move the LTV slider and watch the cash flow and coverage figures rather than only the cash returned. Plenty of experienced operators leave five or ten thousand in a deal deliberately to keep the payment somewhere the rent can carry it in a soft month.
Related calculators
Run these numbers on a real deal
Every off-market listing on the marketplace carries the figures this calculator asks for, so you can price a deal without retyping it.
Browse off-market dealsThis calculator estimates results from the numbers you enter. It does not know the property, your lender’s terms, local taxes or the rules of your state, and it is not financial, tax or legal advice. Nothing here has been reviewed by a lawyer. Confirm every figure with your lender, title company and your own professionals before you rely on it.