70% Rule Investing Calculator

The 70% rule calculator gives you a fast, conservative ceiling on what to pay for a distressed property. Enter the after repair value (ARV) and your repair costs, and it returns your maximum allowable offer in seconds.

That number is your discipline. Pay more than it, and you start eating into the margin that’s supposed to cover your holding costs, your closing costs, and your profit.

It runs the same math experienced investors do on every deal: ARV times 70 percent, minus repairs. No spreadsheet, no second-guessing the formula. You bring two numbers, and it does the rest.

What is the 70% rule calculator?

The 70% rule calculator is a deal-analysis tool that estimates the most you should pay for a property. It runs one formula to protect your profit margin before you ever make an offer:

Maximum Purchase Price = (ARV × 0.70) − Repair Costs

The 70% rule itself is an old investor rule of thumb for buying distressed houses. It says your offer should top out at 70 percent of the home’s after repair value, minus what you’ll spend on rehab.

The logic is simple. The 30 percent you hold back isn’t profit you’re handing away. It’s the buffer that absorbs closing costs, holding costs, agent commissions, and the risk you’re taking on.

Two inputs decide everything: the ARV and the repair number. Get both right and the rest is arithmetic. Get them wrong and the prettiest deal on paper turns into a money pit.

How to use this calculator

Using the calculator takes four inputs and one read. You estimate the ARV, estimate repairs, apply the 70 percent discount, then subtract repair costs to land on your maximum offer. Here’s each step.

Step 1: Determine the ARV

Your ARV is the after repair value: what the property will sell for once it’s fully fixed and in move-in condition. It’s the anchor for the whole calculation.

ARV comes from comps, the recent sales of similar homes nearby, the same way you’d price a used car. Pull three to five recent sales within about a mile, similar in size, age, and finish level.

Be conservative here. Overstating ARV is the fastest way to overpay for a deal. Property-data tools and a CRM like REsimpli auto-pull valuation, last-sale, and comp data onto a lead, which gives you a starting estimate to refine.

One caveat: estimated values aren’t exact and differ between sources. Valuation isn’t a science, so treat any auto-estimate as a starting point, not gospel.

Step 2: Estimate repair costs

Repair costs are your honest estimate of everything it takes to bring the property up to that ARV condition. This is the other number you can’t afford to miss.

Walk the property, or have a contractor walk it, and price out the full scope: roof, HVAC, kitchen, baths, flooring, paint, and any structural work. Then build in a contingency for the surprises you’ll find behind the walls.

Underestimating rehab costs is the classic, costly mistake. When you’re not sure, round up. A deal that pencils at a realistic repair number is a deal. One that only works if nothing goes wrong is a gamble.

Step 3: Apply the 70% discount

Applying the 70 percent discount means multiplying your ARV by 0.70. This single line is what bakes your margin and costs into the offer.

On a $300,000 ARV, 70 percent is $210,000. That’s your starting ceiling, before you account for repairs.

You can run a different percentage when your market or strategy calls for it. Higher numbers like 75 percent are more aggressive; lower ones like 65 percent are more conservative. Hot markets and light rehabs sometimes justify going higher, but you’re trading safety for a better chance at the deal.

Step 4: Subtract renovation costs

The final step subtracts your renovation costs from the discounted ARV to produce your maximum offer. Now the formula is complete.

Take the 70 percent figure and subtract repairs. On that $300,000 ARV with $45,000 in rehab: $210,000 minus $45,000 equals a $165,000 maximum offer.

That’s the most you should pay and still protect your spread. If you’re wholesaling, subtract your assignment fee too, since the end buyer needs room to hit the same 70 percent math.

Understanding the 30% cushion

The 30 percent the formula holds back isn’t your profit. It’s a cushion that covers the costs the purchase price ignores, holding, financing, and transaction expenses, plus your margin and your risk.

Think of the gap between 70 percent of ARV and full ARV as a bucket. Out of that bucket comes every cost between buying and selling. Whatever’s left is your profit.

Skip this thinking and you’ll wonder where your spread went at closing. Three cost groups eat into the cushion, and the discount is sized to absorb all three.

Holding Costs

Holding costs are the recurring expenses you pay for every month you own the property. They run from purchase to sale and add up fast on a fix and flip, which often takes around six months.

• Property taxes: prorated for the months you hold the property.
• Insurance: vacant-property or builder’s-risk coverage during the rehab.
• Utilities: power, water, and gas to run the job and show the home.
• Maintenance and upkeep: lawn care, snow removal, and securing the property.
• Loan interest: the carrying cost on any financing for the months you hold.

The longer a project drags, the deeper holding costs cut. A flip that slips from four months to eight can wipe out a real chunk of profit, which is exactly why the 30 percent buffer exists.

Financing Fees

Financing fees are the costs of borrowing the money to buy and rehab the property. Most investors don’t pay all cash, so borrowed money comes with a price tag.

• Loan origination and points: upfront fees on hard-money or private loans.
• Interest payments: rehab capital often carries around 10 percent a year from private or transactional lenders.
• Lender charges: draw fees, processing, and servicing costs.
• Mortgage insurance: where it applies to your loan structure.

These fees move with your loan terms and how long you carry the debt. Sell or refinance faster and you pay less. Drag the timeline and financing quietly eats into the cushion.

Transaction Fees

Transaction fees are the one-time costs of buying and then selling the property. You pay them on both ends of the deal, and they hit your net profit directly.

• Closing costs: title, escrow, recording, and lender fees.
• Agent commissions: typically 5 to 6 percent when you list the finished flip.
• Legal fees: attorney review in states that require it.
• Title and escrow charges: the neutral closer that pays off liens and disburses the funds.

On a fix and flip you carry transaction costs twice, buying low and selling at retail. The 30 percent discount is built to absorb that double hit and still leave you a spread.

How does the calculator work?

The calculator takes two inputs, ARV and repair costs, applies the 70 percent rule, and returns one output: your maximum allowable offer. It turns the standard MAO formula into a real-time answer.

Under the hood it’s the same math investors run by hand, just instant. You type the ARV, type your repair estimate, and it multiplies and subtracts for you.

The input-to-output flow is short:

• Input: ARV and estimated repair costs, plus an optional custom percentage and wholesale fee.
• Process: ARV × 70% − repairs, then minus the wholesale fee if you set one.
• Output: your maximum purchase price, recalculated as you change the numbers.

Because it updates live, you can stress-test a deal in seconds. Drop the ARV by $10,000 or bump repairs by $15,000 and watch your max offer move. That’s how you find the edge where a deal stops working.

Inside a full CRM, this kind of deal math lives right on the lead. Platforms like REsimpli include a built-in deal calculator with comps and the 70 percent rule on the property record, so you’re not switching tabs to run a quick estimate.

Example deal scenarios

Real numbers make the 70 percent rule click. Here are three quick scenarios showing how ARV and repair costs drive your maximum offer.

Scenario	ARV	Repair costs	70% of ARV	Max offer (MAO)
Light-rehab flip	$250,000	$30,000	$175,000	$145,000
Heavy-rehab flip	$330,000	$100,000	$231,000	$131,000
Wholesale deal*	$200,000	$40,000	$140,000	$100,000

*Wholesale: subtract your assignment fee from the max offer. Want a $15,000 fee? Your offer to the seller drops to $85,000 so the end buyer still hits 70 percent.

The heavy-rehab row is the textbook deal: a $330,000 ARV minus $100,000 in repairs lands at a $131,000 maximum offer. Same formula, very different numbers, all driven by condition.

When to use the 70% rule

Use the 70 percent rule when you’re screening fix-and-flip or wholesale deals and need a fast, conservative offer ceiling. It’s built for buying distressed property at a discount, not paying retail.

• Fix and flip: the rule was made for this. Buy, renovate, resell, and the 30 percent covers your costs and profit.
• Wholesale: back into a price that still leaves room for your fee and the end buyer’s margin.
• Quick screening: when you’ve got 40 leads and limited time, the rule kills bad deals fast so you focus on the live ones.
• Discounted property: it assumes you’re buying below market value on a motivated-seller deal.

Where it fits less well: turnkey rentals and buy-and-hold deals, where cash-on-cash return, cap rate, and rent ratios matter more than a flip-style offer cap. The rule is a screening tool, not the last word.

When This Calculator Is Most Useful

This calculator earns its keep at the very start of a deal, when you’re deciding whether a lead is worth a real offer. It’s a first-pass filter, not a final underwriting model.

Timing is the key. Run it the moment a motivated seller gives you a property address and a rough idea of condition.

• Before you make an offer: set your ceiling so you never negotiate past your own number.
• During lead triage: screen a batch of leads quickly and rank them by spread.
• On the phone with a seller: sanity-check a price in real time without leaving the call.
• When comparing deals: put two properties side by side on identical math.

It’s most useful when speed matters, and in this business it usually does. The investors who win deals tend to answer fast and analyze fast. A quick, repeatable number beats a slow, perfect one when a seller is shopping your offer against three others.

How Investors Use the Results

Investors use the calculator’s max offer as a hard ceiling, an anchor for negotiation, and a quick yes-or-no filter on whether a lead is worth chasing. The number isn’t just a readout; it changes what you do next.

• Set your walk-away price: the MAO is the most you’ll pay. Above it, you pass.
• Anchor your opening offer: start below the max so you’ve got room to negotiate up.
• Compare against the asking price: if the seller wants $40,000 over your MAO, you know the gap before you waste a call.
• Decide the exit: a thin spread might mean wholesale it; a fat spread might mean flip it.

A common move is to run the number, then assign or pursue based on the spread. If the max offer leaves a healthy margin, you lock it up. If it’s tight, you either renegotiate the price or move to the next lead.

Important Considerations

The 70 percent rule is a guideline, not a guarantee. Your results are only as good as your ARV and repair estimates, and the rule needs adjusting for your market and your strategy.

Treat the output as a starting point you validate, not a verdict you act on blindly.

• Garbage in, garbage out: a wrong ARV or a lowball repair number produces a confident, wrong answer. Verify both.
• Markets vary: 70 percent is a baseline. Competitive metros can push investors toward 75 percent; softer markets reward staying lower.
• Estimates aren’t exact: auto-pulled values from any data source are approximations and differ from tool to tool.
• The rule glosses over time: a long rehab or a slow sale raises holding and financing costs that the formula only roughly accounts for.

For high-stakes deals, back up the quick number with a full underwriting pass: detailed comps, a contractor’s repair bid, and real financing quotes. The calculator gets you to a fast, defensible offer. It doesn’t replace due diligence.

Built for Real-World Deal Analysis

This calculator is built for the way investors actually work: fast, on real deals, with the same MAO math the pros run on every property. A standalone tool is handy, but deal analysis doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

It happens on a lead, next to the seller’s number, the property data, and your notes. That’s why deal math is strongest inside the system you already run your business in.

An all-in-one CRM like REsimpli puts a built-in deal calculator right on the property record, alongside auto-pulled valuation, tax, mortgage, and comp data, so you can go from lead to offer without switching tools.

From there you can record the exit type, move the lead through your pipeline, and keep the entire deal in one place, from first call to closing.

Run your next deal through the 70% rule above, then see how a real estate CRM keeps the math, the lead, and the follow-up together. Get started with REsimpli.

Disclaimer: This calculator provides estimates for educational purposes only. It isn’t financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. The output depends entirely on the numbers you enter, so verify your ARV with current comps, confirm repairs with a licensed contractor, and consult a qualified professional before making any investment decision.