Free ARV calculator

Type in up to three sold comps and your repair budget. The calculator works out the after repair value by price per square foot, then shows the most a flip buyer would pay under the 70% rule. No account, nothing saved.

How the ARV is worked out

ARV is what a house should sell for once it is fully repaired. The calculator estimates it the way most investors do by hand:

• Price per square foot for each comp. Sold price divided by living square feet. A $205,000 sale of a 1,450 square foot house is about $141 per square foot.
• Average the comps. Three comps smooth out one high or low sale.
• Multiply by your square feet. The average price per square foot times your property's living area is the ARV.

If you do not know the square footage, the calculator falls back to the plain average of the sold prices. That is rougher, so fill in the square feet when you can.

Picking comps that hold up

The formula is the easy part. The number is only as good as the comps behind it, and every serious buyer will pull their own. Use:

• Closed sales, not listings. A list price is a hope; a sold price is a fact.
• Close by. Same neighborhood, ideally within half a mile, and on the same side of any highway, school line or subdivision boundary that the market treats as a wall.
• Recent. The last three to six months carry the most weight.
• Renovated. Comp the house as it will be, not as it sits. A dated sale next door tells you the as-is price, not the ARV.
• Similar. Beds, baths, size, age and style. If one comp has an extra bathroom or backs onto a main road, adjust for it or swap it out.

Repair costs: the second input

Rehab cost is everything it takes to get from today's condition to the condition your comps sold in: materials, labor, permits, dumpsters and a cushion for what the walls are hiding. Price the big systems first (roof, heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing, foundation) because those are the ones that blow up a budget. Cabinets and paint are easy to see and easy to price.

From ARV to an offer

The classic screen is the 70% rule: a flip buyer pays no more than 70% of ARV minus repairs. On the example above, 70% of the ARV less $30,000 of repairs is the buyer's ceiling. The 30% that comes off the top is not all profit; it covers holding costs, closing costs on both ends, selling costs and the buyer's margin. Buyers in expensive markets often stretch to 75% or more; buyers in cheap markets with thin resale prices may hold at 65%. Change the percentage to match the buyers you actually sell to.

If you are a wholesaler, the buyer's ceiling is their number, not yours. Enter your assignment fee and the calculator takes it off the buyer's maximum to show the most you can offer the seller and still have a deal that sells. The guide to calculating MAO walks through the same math with a landlord buyer and a creative finance deal, where the percentage stops being the point.

Where ARV estimates go wrong

• Cherry-picking the single highest sale in the area and calling it a comp.
• Using active listings or an online estimate instead of closed sales.
• Comping a gut job against fully renovated homes without adjusting for condition.
• Guessing a flat repair number with no scope behind it, and missing the big systems.
• Running the math with the ARV you wish you had. An inflated ARV does not make a deal better; it just means experienced buyers pass.

Conservative ARVs close deals. If the numbers only work at a stretch, the honest answer is usually that it is a rental, not a flip, and buy and hold buyers price off rent and yield instead. Our fix and flip deals page goes through what to check before buying a flip.