Maximum Allowable Offer Calculator
What is the most I can offer on this house? The most you can pay and still hit your margin, using the 70% rule or your own.
Maximum allowable offer
$144,500
The property
What it will be worth finished, and what it costs to get there.
What it sells for once the work is done
Materials, labour and permits
Your terms
What you hold back, and what you earn.
70% is the classic rule of thumb
Your income if you are wholesaling. Leave empty if you are not.
Maximum allowable offer
$144,500
The most you can pay at 70% of ARV.
- All-in cost
- $187,000
- Margin at resale
- $85,500
Workable spread
$85,500 sits between your all-in cost and the after-repair value — the 30.0% of ARV your percentage holds back, to cover selling costs, carry and profit. Check it against the fixed costs of a sale in your market rather than against the rest of this page: it is the same 30.0% at every rehab budget.
How the offer is built
- After-repair value
- $285,000
- Held back at 70%Covers closing costs both ends, holding, selling and profit
- − $85,500
- Rehab budget
- − $42,500
- Assignment fee
- − $12,500
- Maximum allowable offer
- $144,500
Where the after-repair value goes
- Your offer51%
- Rehab15%
- Assignment fee4%
- Margin30%
Your position
- Your offer
- $144,500
- Plus rehab
- $42,500
- All-in cost
- $187,000
- Margin at resaleThe held-back share in dollars — 30% of the after-repair value, by construction. Raising the rehab or the fee lowers the offer, not this.
- $85,500
If you moved the percentage
What a five-point change is worth at the negotiating table.
| Of ARV | Max offer | vs. yours |
|---|---|---|
| 60% | $116,000 | −$28,500 |
| 65% | $130,250 | −$14,250 |
| 70%yours | $144,500 | — |
| 75% | $158,750 | +$14,250 |
| 80% | $173,000 | +$28,500 |
How this is calculated
The maximum allowable offer is one subtraction:
MAO = (ARV × your percentage) − rehab budget − assignment fee
The percentage is the whole method. Everything the deal has to pay for that is not the purchase and not the rehab — closing costs on the buy and the sell, months of insurance and utilities, the agent’s commission, the cost of the money and the profit itself — comes out of the portion you hold back. At 70%, that is thirty cents of every dollar of after-repair value.
The margin figure shown alongside the offer is ARV − MAO − rehab − assignment fee, and it is worth being clear about what that is: substitute the MAO back in and the rehab and the fee both cancel, leaving ARV × (1 − your percentage). The margin is the held-back share, exactly — the same number as the “Held back” line in the table above, restated in the position table. It does not respond to the rehab budget or to the assignment fee, and it is not an independent check on them; raising either lowers the offer instead.
The row is there because the dollars matter and the percentage does not move. Thirty percent of a two hundred thousand dollar after-repair value is sixty thousand and thirty percent of a hundred and twenty thousand is thirty-six, and a sale costs roughly the same in fixed dollars either way. That is the comparison to make — against the fixed costs of your market, not against the rest of this page.
The sensitivity table re-runs the same subtraction at two percentages either side of yours, so you can see what a five-point change is worth in dollars before you negotiate.
Common questions
What is the 70% rule?
It is a shorthand that says an investor should pay no more than 70% of a property's after-repair value, minus the cost of repairs. The 30% it holds back is meant to absorb holding costs, selling costs, financing and profit all at once. It is a screening tool, not an underwriting method — on a low-priced house 30% may not cover the fixed costs of a sale, and on an expensive one it can leave far more margin than the deal needs.
Should I use 70%, or something else?
The right percentage depends on the price point, how fast the market is moving and what your money costs. Investors commonly work between 65% and 80%. Lower percentages buy more safety margin and win fewer deals; higher percentages win more and leave less room for a surprise in the rehab. Change the percentage in the calculator and watch what it does to your margin before you commit to one.
Where does the assignment fee fit in?
If you are wholesaling, the assignment fee is your income and it has to come out of the same spread. Subtracting it here means the maximum offer shown is what you can pay and still earn that fee while leaving your end buyer the margin the percentage implies.
Does this include closing costs?
Not separately. The percentage of ARV is doing that job — the portion held back is intended to cover closing costs on both ends, holding costs and profit together. If you want those costed line by line rather than absorbed into one percentage, use the fix and flip calculator instead.
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.