ARV (After Repair Value)

ARV (after repair value) is the estimated market value of a property once all repairs and renovations are complete.

ARV — after repair value — is what a property should sell for once it is fully repaired and renovated. It is the anchor number in nearly every wholesale and flip deal: buyers work backward from ARV to figure out what they can pay today.

ARV is estimated with comps: recently sold properties near the subject that match its size, bed and bath count, and — critically — its renovated condition. The honest method is to comp the house as it will be, not as it sits: find renovated sales of similar homes within a reasonable distance and a recent time window, and let those sales set the number. In a live deal, the wholesaler advertises an ARV, and every serious buyer runs their own comps to check it.

Beginners get ARV wrong in predictable ways. They cherry-pick the single highest sale in the neighborhood and call it a comp. They use active listing prices instead of closed sales — a list price is an opinion, a sold price is a fact. Or they comp a dated house against fully renovated ones without adjusting for condition. An inflated ARV does not make a deal better; it just means experienced buyers pass, and the ones who do not will figure it out before closing. Conservative ARVs close deals.