BRRRR Calculator: Calculate Your Savings & Costs Easily

This tool estimates your total investment, refinance amount, cash recovered, and ROI in seconds. Plug in the purchase price, rehab costs, ARV, and refinance terms, and the calculator does the rest.

Use it to pressure-test a deal before you make an offer. In a BRRRR strategy, the numbers are the whole game.

Read on for the formulas, a worked example, and the property types and risks worth knowing before you commit capital to a rental property.

Disclaimer: This calculator gives estimates for educational purposes only, not financial, lending, tax, or investment advice. Your actual numbers depend on your inputs, your lender's terms, and market conditions like interest rates, which can shift between purchase and refinance. Confirm terms with your lender and consult a professional before committing.

What Is a BRRRR Calculator?

A BRRRR calculator is a deal-analysis tool that estimates the returns on a buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat deal. It runs the core numbers, your total investment, cash recovered, cash flow, and ROI, before you ever commit capital.

BRRRR stands for buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. You buy a distressed property, renovate it, rent it out, refinance to pull your cash back, then repeat the process on the next one.

The calculator exists because BRRRR has more moving parts than a straight flip. Purchase price, rehab costs, ARV, refinance terms, and rent all interact. Miss one and the whole deal shifts.

Two numbers carry the most weight: your ARV and your rehab budget. The refinance is sized off the ARV, and your cash recovered depends on getting both right.

Rental property for BRRRR real estate investing

How to Calculate BRRRR Returns

You calculate BRRRR returns in four steps: enter your purchase details, estimate rental income and expenses, set your refinance assumptions, then read the analysis. Each step feeds the next.

1. Enter Property Purchase Details

Start with purchase price, rehab costs, and closing costs. These set your total investment and the size of your refinance.
2. Estimate Rental Income & Expenses

Enter expected monthly rent and operating expenses like taxes, insurance, maintenance, and management.
3. Set Refinance Assumptions

Enter your ARV, the lender's loan-to-value, interest rate, and loan term so the tool can size your new loan.
4. Review Your BRRRR Analysis

Check total investment, cash recovered, monthly cash flow, and ROI — and see if you hit infinite ROI.

Pro tip: Aim for a refinance that recovers 70% to 80% of your total investment, so you recycle most of your capital into the next deal.

Core BRRRR Formulas

Total Investment = Purchase Price + Rehab Costs
Refinance Amount = ARV × LTV%
Cash Recovered = Refinance Amount − Total Investment
Infinite ROI = when cash recovered ≥ total investment

The BRRRR Method

1. Buy

Purchase a distressed or undervalued property below market.
2. Rehab

Renovate to force appreciation and raise the ARV.
3. Rent

Place a tenant and start generating rental income.
4. Refinance

Cash-out refinance based on the new ARV to recover capital.
5. Repeat

Deploy recovered cash into the next BRRRR deal.

How Do You Analyze BRRRR Real Estate Returns

You analyze BRRRR returns by breaking the deal into three phases: the cash you put in, the cash you pull back out at refinance, and the profit and ROI left over. Each phase has its own formula.

Three-Phase BRRRR Analysis

Phase 1: Total Investment (Cash Out)

This is the capital you deploy up front to buy and renovate.

Total Investment = Purchase Price + Rehab Cost + Closing Costs

Phase 2: Refinance and Cash Flow (Cash Recovered)

This is the capital you pull back out after refinancing.

Refinance Loan = ARV × LTV Ratio

Cash Recovered = Refinance Loan − Existing Loan Balance

Phase 3: Profit and ROI Calculation

This is your return on the capital you deployed.

ROI = (Total Gains ÷ Total Investment) × 100

Total Gains include cash flow, equity retained, and refinance profit.

BRRRR Formula Example

Here's a BRRRR formula example with round numbers, so you can see how the three phases connect on a real deal.

Purchase Price$120,000

Rehab Costs$40,000

Closing Costs$5,000

ARV$230,000

LTV75%

Monthly Cash Flow~$294

Total Investment$120,000 + $40,000 + $5,000 = $165,000

Refinance Loan$230,000 × 75% = $172,500

Cash Recovered$172,500 (cash purchase)

Equity Retained$57,500

Annual Cash Flow~$3,526

First-Cycle ROI~$68,500 ÷ $165,000 ≈ 41.5%

On our example deal, that's $120,000 plus $40,000 in rehab plus $5,000 in closing, for $165,000 in.

A $230,000 ARV at 75% gives a $172,500 refinance loan. With a cash purchase, your existing loan is $0, so you recover all $172,500 — every dollar you put in plus a $7,500 surplus.

Here you keep $57,500 in equity, pull a $7,500 surplus, and net about $294 a month, or $3,526 a year, in cash flow. That's roughly $68,500 in total gains on $165,000 deployed, about a 41.5% first-cycle ROI.

And because you recovered every dollar you put in, that capital is free to repeat the process on the next property. That's the infinite ROI idea. Once cash recovered meets or beats your total investment, you've got none of your own money left in the deal, so your ongoing return isn't capped.

How to Use This BRRRR Calculator

Using this BRRRR calculator is a quick loop: enter real numbers, test your assumptions, and compare deals before you commit. Treat it as a screening tool you run on every lead.

Plug in conservative numbers

Use a realistic ARV and honest rehab costs, not best-case figures.
Stress-test the refinance

Try lower loan-to-values and higher interest rates to see if the deal still holds.
Compare scenarios

Run a few properties side by side and chase the one that recovers the most capital.
Decide and act

If the cash recovered and cash flow clear your targets, move on it. If not, pass.

Why Investors Use a BRRRR Calculator

Investors use a BRRRR calculator because the strategy lives or dies on the refinance, and guessing is expensive. The tool shows whether a deal actually recycles your capital before you sink money into it.

Speed

Screen a property in minutes instead of building a spreadsheet from scratch.
Capital efficiency

See exactly how much cash comes back out so you can plan the next purchase price.
Infinite-ROI check

Know up front whether the deal can return all your capital — the BRRRR holy grail.
Better offers

Back into a purchase price that makes the refinance math work, instead of overpaying.

Unlike a short-term flip, BRRRR is a long-term rental play, so small errors compound over years. A calculator keeps your investing strategy honest.

What Types of Properties Work Best for BRRRR?

The properties that work best for BRRRR are undervalued homes with real forced-appreciation upside in solid rental markets. You need room to add value and a rent that supports the refinanced loan.

Distressed single-family homes: Dated or neglected houses you can buy below market and renovate into strong rentals.
Small multifamily: Duplexes through fourplexes that boost rental income and still qualify for residential refinancing.
Cosmetic-rehab properties: Homes needing paint, flooring, and kitchens, where renovation costs stay predictable.
Properties in stable rental areas: Neighborhoods with steady demand, so the rental property stays occupied after the rehab.

Skip homes with major structural issues or thin margins. If the after repair value won't support a refinance that recovers your cash, it's not a BRRRR deal.

What Are the Biggest Risks of the BRRRR Strategy?

The biggest risks of the BRRRR strategy trace back to two numbers being wrong: the ARV and the rehab budget. Miss either and your refinance comes up short, leaving cash trapped in the deal.

A low appraisal: If the ARV comes in under your estimate, the bank lends less and you recover less cash.
Rising interest rates: Higher rates at refinance shrink your cash flow and can turn a winner into a break-even.
Rehab overruns: Renovation costs that balloon eat your budget and push your total investment past what you can recover.
Seasoning requirements: Many lenders make you wait months before refinancing, so plan for the holding period.
Vacancy and weak cash flow: A property that sits empty drains the rental income you're counting on to carry the loan.

None of these kill BRRRR as a real estate investment approach. They're just why you run the numbers before you buy, not after.

BRRRR rewards discipline. The investors who win run every deal through the math first, buy right, and let the refinance hand their capital back.

Keep the Math, the Lead, and the Follow-Up Together

The calculator above handles the refinance and ROI math that's specific to BRRRR. A platform like REsimpli covers the rest of the deal.

Its built-in deal calculator helps you nail the ARV and a disciplined purchase price at acquisition, using property data it auto-pulls from third-party sources (estimates, not exact).

Once the property is rented, REsimpli's pipeline tracks it from inventory to rental, with KPI and ROI dashboards so you can watch the numbers across your whole portfolio.

Run your next deal through the calculator above, then keep the math, the lead, and the follow-up together with REsimpli.

Start Your Free Trial

Built-in deal calculator Nail ARV and purchase price with auto-pulled property data.
Pipeline tracking Follow each property from inventory to rental in one place.
KPI & ROI dashboards Watch returns across your whole BRRRR portfolio.

Purchase Closing Costs	$0.00
Repair/Improvement Costs	$0.00
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After Repair Value	$0.00

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Loan Amount	$0.00
Loan Points/Fees	$0.00
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Monthly Interest	$0.00
Total Cash Needed At Purchase	$0.00

Loan Amount	$0.00
Loan Fees	$0.00
Amortized Over	-
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Monthly P&I	$0.00
Total Cash Invested	$0.00