Run a complete BRRRR deal — from purchase and rehab through the refinance — and see exactly how much capital you'll recover, what stays in the deal, and whether the cash-on-cash return justifies it.
The whole BRRRR dream lives or dies on one phone call: the appraiser tells you the After Repair Value, and either you pull your money back out and do it again, or $22,000 of your capital gets buried in a house you can't easily get it out of. Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat sounds like a chant. In practice it's a chain of numbers where one soft estimate three steps back quietly wrecks the payday at the end. This calculator runs the chain with precision: purchase price, rehab budget, closing costs on both the buy and the refi, holding costs during the rehab, the LTV your lender will extend on the refinanced value, and the rental income and expenses that determine cash flow once the dust settles.
This calculator runs the complete deal in one place. The outputs are Cash Left In the Deal after refinance, Capital Recycled (the cash pulled back out), Cash-on-Cash Return on the remaining capital, and Repeat Potential — how many deals you could theoretically run simultaneously with the same starting capital if each one recycled similarly. Change any input and every output updates, letting you stress-test a deal before you make an offer.
How cash left in the deal determines whether BRRRR worked
Total cash invested in a BRRRR deal is purchase price plus rehab budget plus both sets of closing costs plus holding costs during the rehab period. On a $150,000 purchase with $40,000 rehab, $4,500 buy-side closing, $6,000 holding costs, and $4,000 refi closing, total cash in is $204,500. If the ARV comes in at $260,000 and the lender extends 75% LTV, the refinance proceeds are $195,000. Cash left in the deal is $204,500 minus $195,000 — a $9,500 remainder. That's close to a full capital recycle.
A full capital recycle (near zero cash left in) is the theoretical ideal of the BRRRR method but is rarely achieved in practice and shouldn't be the primary goal. What matters is whether the cash left in the deal earns an acceptable cash-on-cash return. If you have $9,500 remaining invested and the property cash flows $547/month after the refi PITI and expenses, your annual cash flow is $6,564 — a 69% cash-on-cash return. That's exceptional. The calculator surfaces this metric so you can evaluate deals on returns, not just capital recycling percentages.
The ARV estimate is the assumption that breaks most BRRRR deals
After Repair Value is the single most consequential input in the calculator and the hardest one to get right. Everything downstream — the refinance proceeds, the capital recycled, the cash left in — depends on the lender's appraisal matching your ARV estimate. If your ARV estimate is $260,000 and the appraisal comes in at $235,000, the 75% LTV refinance produces only $176,250 instead of $195,000. That $18,750 shortfall stays trapped in the deal as additional capital left in.
Conservative ARV estimates are not pessimism — they're deal discipline. Run the calculator at your ARV estimate and then again at 10% below it to see the sensitivity. If the deal still generates an acceptable cash-on-cash return at the lower ARV, it has margin of safety built in. If it only works at the optimistic ARV, the deal has very little room for the market or the appraiser to disagree with you.
Refi LTV and interest rate: how lender terms reshape returns
Most DSCR and conventional lenders will extend 70-80% LTV on a refinance of an investment property. The default in the calculator is 75%. A lender offering 80% LTV changes the math significantly: on a $260,000 ARV, the difference between 75% and 80% LTV is $13,000 in additional capital recycled. Shopping lenders for the best LTV term before committing to a deal is worth the time investment.
The refinance interest rate determines your monthly PITI and therefore your post-refi cash flow. At 7% on a 30-year fixed at the default $195,000 refi, the monthly principal and interest payment is approximately $1,297. Whether the $2,100 default monthly rent covers that payment plus taxes, insurance, management, and maintenance depends on your specific market costs. Enter your realistic rent and expenses — the tool calculates monthly cash flow after all costs and shows it alongside Cash-on-Cash to give you the complete picture.
Holding costs: the budget line that BRRRR investors routinely underestimate
Holding costs accumulate every day from purchase closing to the date the refinance closes. They include interest on any bridge loan or hard money financing, property taxes, insurance, and utilities during the vacancy period. On a six-month rehab with $80,000 in hard money at 10% interest only, carrying cost is $4,000 in interest alone — and that's before the $3,000 in insurance and taxes during the same period.
The default Holding Costs input is $6,000 — a reasonable estimate for a 3-4 month rehab timeline with modest financing costs. If you're using hard money financing at 10-12%, increase this number to reflect the actual carry. Understating holding costs is one of the most common reasons a BRRRR deal looks great on paper and disappoints in execution: the capital outlay was higher than projected, the refinance recovered less than expected, and the gap between the two is the actual return on invested capital.
Repeat Potential and what it means for your portfolio strategy
The Repeat Potential output shows how many similar deals you could theoretically run with the same initial capital pool if each deal recycled a similar percentage of invested capital. If you started with $205,000 and the first deal returns $195,500 after refinance, you theoretically have enough capital to start a second deal of similar size with just the recycled proceeds. Repeat Potential greater than 1.0 means the BRRRR strategy is genuinely scalable from your current capital base.
In practice, repeat potential depends on timing — you need the refi to close before you need the capital for the next deal — and on each deal maintaining the same ARV and LTV outcomes. Most experienced BRRRR investors run 2-3 deals simultaneously using construction draws and bridge financing rather than waiting for each refi to close. The Repeat Potential output helps you think about the velocity at which you can scale, not just whether one deal works in isolation. Plan it once, save it, and stop redoing the math every time a new deal crosses your desk.
How to use it
- Enter Purchase Price, Rehab Budget, After Repair Value (ARV), Closing Costs on the buy side, and Holding Costs During Rehab.
- Fill in Refi LTV %, Refi Interest Rate %, and Refi Closing Costs to model the refinance proceeds.
- Enter Monthly Rent and Monthly Expenses (tax, insurance, management, maintenance) to calculate post-refi cash flow.
- Read Cash Left In Deal, Capital Recycled, Cash-on-Cash Return, and Repeat Potential in the KPI row.
- Stress-test by reducing ARV by 10% and confirming the deal still makes sense at the lower appraised value.
Who it's for
- First-time BRRRR investor evaluating an off-market property — Models a $140,000 purchase with $35,000 rehab at $240,000 ARV, finds cash left in is $17,000 and cash-on-cash is 44% — decides the deal meets their minimum return threshold.
- Experienced investor stress-testing ARV assumption — Runs the calculator at $260,000 ARV and then $230,000, finds that a $30,000 lower appraisal traps an additional $22,500 in the deal — decides the neighborhood comps need tighter validation before making the offer.
- Investor comparing two potential rehab targets — Enters both properties' numbers side by side in separate runs, finds Property A has lower capital recycled but higher monthly cash flow — compares total 5-year return profiles to select the better investment.
- Investor modeling portfolio scaling velocity — Uses the Repeat Potential output to determine they can start a second BRRRR deal within 8 months of closing the first refinance, structuring their capital deployment timeline accordingly.
Key terms
- After Repair Value (ARV)
- The estimated market value of the property after all planned renovations are complete. The foundation of the refinance calculation — every downstream output depends on this number.
- Cash-on-Cash Return
- Annual cash flow divided by total cash left in the deal after refinance. Measures what your remaining invested capital earns annually from rental cash flow.
- Capital Recycled
- The portion of total cash invested in the deal that is returned through the refinance proceeds. A high capital recycling percentage is the core objective of the BRRRR strategy.
- LTV (Loan-to-Value)
- The percentage of a property's appraised value that a lender will finance. At 75% LTV on a $260,000 ARV, the refinance loan is $195,000.
Frequently asked questions
What is ARV and how do I estimate it accurately?
After Repair Value is the market value of the property after all renovations are complete. Estimate it using comparable sales (comps) of similar-sized, similarly updated properties within a half-mile radius and sold within the last six months. Your real estate agent or a licensed appraiser can provide formal comps before you make an offer.
Does the calculator account for hard money loan payments during the rehab?
Holding Costs is where hard money interest goes. Calculate your monthly hard money interest payment and multiply by the expected rehab duration in months, then add insurance and taxes for the same period. Enter the total as your Holding Costs input.
What cash-on-cash return makes a BRRRR deal worth doing?
Most investors target a minimum 8-12% cash-on-cash return on the capital left in the deal. The beauty of BRRRR is that with near-full capital recycling, the denominator (cash left in) is very small, making CoC returns appear extremely high. Focus on absolute monthly cash flow and whether the refinanced mortgage is well-covered by market rent in addition to the CoC percentage.
Can I use this tool for a commercial BRRRR?
The math works for commercial properties, but lender terms differ significantly. Commercial refi LTV typically runs 65-70% on stabilized properties and interest rates are often higher. Update the LTV and rate inputs to reflect commercial terms and the model remains accurate.