BRRRR Calculator
What actually comes back out at the refinance, what the appraisal has to hit, and what the property pays you once the new loan is on it.
Buy & rehab
Acquisition loan
Treated as interest-only on the full balance across the hold, which is the conservative reading. A lender releasing rehab in draws charges less — the fix & flip cost of capital calculator models draw timing and Dutch interest precisely.
Refinance
Rent
Assumptions
Capital recovered
—
Select a refinance structure.
Cash flow after refinance
—
Select a refinance structure.
| Down payment | — |
|---|---|
| Rehab out of pocket | — |
| Points & interest | — |
| Holding costs | — |
| Total cash in | — |
| Refinance loan | —Select a refinance structure |
| Acquisition payoff | — |
| Cash out at refinance | —Select a refinance structure |
| Cash left in the deal | —Select a refinance structure |
| Appraisal for full recovery | — |
| Equity after refinance | — |
| New monthly payment | —Select a refinance structure |
| Net operating income | — |
| Cash-on-cash on capital left in | — |
Estimates only, based on the assumptions shown above. The refinance depends on an appraisal that has not happened, a lender's loan-to-value and seasoning rules that vary by product, and a rehab that has not been priced by a contractor. Not a loan commitment, an offer of credit, or investment advice.
Capital recovered and cash flow pull against each other
BRRRR is usually sold on a single idea: get all your money back at the refinance and own the property for nothing. The arithmetic behind that is sound. The framing leaves out that the two numbers people care about move in opposite directions.
The money you pull out is borrowed. Recovering every dollar means borrowing the maximum your lender allows, which means the largest payment against the same rent — so cash flow falls exactly as capital recovery rises. A deal returning 100 percent of your capital and $40 a month is not obviously better than one returning 70 percent and $300 a month. It is a different deal, with different risk, and the right answer depends on whether you need the capital more than you need the margin.
That is why both numbers sit at the top of this page and neither appears alone. Raise the appraised value above and watch capital recovered climb while cash flow and coverage fall. Push it far enough and coverage drops under 1.00, at which point no lender writes the refinance and the whole plan stops regardless of how good the recovery looks.
The second thing worth being precise about is total cash in. It is not the down payment. On the default scenario the down payment is $22,500 and the actual cash out of pocket is $83,462 — closing costs, the rehab, points and interest on the acquisition loan, and six months of holding costs. Measuring recovery against the down payment makes almost any BRRRR look like a triumph, and it is the most common way these deals get reported optimistically.
Third: the refinance is capped by the appraisal, not by what you spent. The loan is the lender’s LTV against appraised value, and it has to repay your acquisition debt and cover refinance closing before a dollar reaches you. The tool works backwards and tells you the appraised value you would need for full recovery. On the default inputs that is about $288,600 against the $265,000 entered — a gap most people only discover when the appraisal comes back.
Finally, seasoning, which is the trap that catches first-timers. Many lenders will not lend against a new appraised value until you have held the property six to twelve months; before that, cash-out is commonly capped at your total cost basis. Tick the seasoning box off above and watch the cash left in the deal go from about $18,000 to roughly $67,000. Nothing about the property changed — only the date. That is a question to ask a lender before you buy, not after the rehab is finished.
Two inputs here deserve their own tools. Build the appraised value properly with the ARV calculator, and get the acquisition financing cost right with the fix & flip cost of capital calculator, which handles draw timing and Dutch interest that this page deliberately simplifies.
Methodology
- Acquisition loan = purchase × (1 − down payment%) + rehab × rehab financed%.
- Acquisition interest = loan × (rate ÷ 12) × rehab months, treated as interest-only on the full balance. That is the conservative reading; a lender releasing rehab in draws charges less.
- Total cash in = down payment + purchase closing + rehab out of pocket + points + acquisition interest + holding costs.
- Refinance basis = appraised value when seasoning is met, otherwise the lesser of appraised value and total cost basis (purchase + rehab + purchase closing).
- Refinance loan = basis × LTV. Cash out = loan − acquisition payoff − refinance closing.
- Appraisal for full recovery = (total cash in + acquisition payoff + refinance closing) ÷ LTV.
- Coverage = net operating income ÷ annual debt service on the new loan, where NOI is rent less vacancy and every operating expense including maintenance, CapEx reserve and management.
Cash-on-cash is reported only while capital remains in the deal. With none left the ratio has no denominator, and the tool says so rather than printing “infinite”.
Excluded: income tax, depreciation, rent growth, appraisal and inspection fees, the cost of a rehab overrun, and the possibility that the appraisal disappoints. Currency is computed in exact integer cents, including the amortization exponential.
Frequently asked questions
- What does BRRRR stand for?
- Buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. You buy a property below market, renovate it, put a tenant in place, refinance against the new appraised value to pull your capital back out, and use that capital to do it again. The appeal is that the same money can buy more than one property, because it comes back out each time.
- Is an infinite return real?
- The arithmetic is real and the framing is misleading. If you recover every dollar, your cash-on-cash return has no denominator — that is undefined, not infinite. More importantly, recovering everything means borrowing the maximum the lender allows, which means the largest payment and the thinnest cash flow. This calculator will not report an infinite return; it shows capital recovered and cash flow side by side, because either alone tells a misleading story.
- How much capital should I expect to get back?
- It depends entirely on whether the appraisal supports it, and full recovery is not the norm. Work backwards: the loan is capped at the lender's LTV against appraised value, and it has to repay your acquisition loan and cover refinance closing before any of it reaches you. This tool reports the appraised value you would need for 100 percent recovery, which is usually higher than people expect.
- What is seasoning and why does it matter?
- Seasoning is how long you must have owned a property before a lender will lend against its current appraised value rather than what you paid. It is commonly six to twelve months. Refinance before it and cash-out is typically capped at your total cost basis, which can erase most of the point of the strategy — on the default scenario here it leaves roughly $67,000 stuck in the deal instead of $18,000. Ask about seasoning before you buy, not after the rehab.
- What counts as total cash in?
- Down payment, purchase closing costs, whatever share of the rehab you paid yourself, points and interest on the acquisition loan, and holding costs for every month you owned it before refinancing. On the default scenario that is $83,462 against a $22,500 down payment. Measuring recovery against the down payment alone makes almost any BRRRR look like a success.
- Why does my cash flow get worse when I pull more money out?
- Because the money you pull out is borrowed. A larger refinance loan means a larger monthly payment against the same rent, so cash flow falls and coverage tightens. Push it far enough and the ratio drops below 1.00, where most lenders will not write the loan at all. The trade between capital recovered and cash flow is the central decision in a BRRRR, and it is why both numbers sit at the top of this page.
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