The BRRRR calculator that thinks like a lender. Most calculators hand you a refinance the bank
would never approve. This one DSCR-checks the loan, counts closing and holding costs, builds your
expenses from a market-measured property-tax rate, and benchmarks your cap rate against
recorded sales — with every formula shown.
Sets the measured property-tax rate for expenses.
sf
Enables the market rent sanity check.
$
$
$
What the rehabbed home appraises for — the refinance is based on this.
$
%
Loan as a share of ARV. 70–75% is typical.
%
30-year fixed.
mo
Rehab + seasoning most lenders require.
Advanced — costs & lender terms (defaults shown)
%
Of purchase: title, escrow, inspections.
%
Of the new loan: lender + title fees.
×
Most DSCR lenders require 1.20–1.25×.
Tax from your market's measured county rate on the ARV; 25% covers vacancy, management, insurance, maintenance.
%
Used only in Simple mode.
Enter your numbers
Cash left in the deal (after refinance)
$0
Refinance loanmin(ARV × LTV, DSCR-supportable)
$0
DSCR at this loanNOI ÷ debt service — lenders check this
—
Monthly cash flowrent − expenses − mortgage
$0
Cash-on-cash returnannual cash flow ÷ cash left in
—
Cap rateannual NOI ÷ ARV (unlevered)
—
Equity after refinanceARV − loan
$0
All-in costpurchase + closing + rehab + carry to refi
$0
Pre-filled with an example Phoenix BRRRR — edit any field. Screening estimates; verify with your own comps, an appraiser, a contractor bid, and your lender's terms.
Every formula, with your numbers
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BRRRR lives or dies on the ARV and the rent — the two numbers you can't fake.
If the appraisal comes in under your ARV, your cash stays trapped. DevelopmentIntelligence estimates
ARV from real comparable sales — with a published, back-tested error rate — and market rent for
every Phoenix parcel, then surfaces the off-market BRRRR and value-add deals the MLS never lists.
The refinance is DSCR-checked. Lenders don't just lend LTV × ARV — they cap the loan so the rent covers
the payment by a margin (typically 1.20–1.25×). When rent can't support the full loan, this calculator
shrinks it the way the bank will — and tells you which constraint bound.
Real costs are counted. Purchase closing, refinance closing, and the property taxes + insurance you carry
from purchase to refinance — the costs generic calculators skip that quietly eat your "cash out".
Expenses come from measured data. In our covered markets the property-tax line uses the county's
measured effective rate — a Phoenix rental runs ≈0.5% of value while Omaha runs ≈2.1%, a 4× spread a flat
"35%" hides.
Your cap rate gets context. We benchmark it against capitalization rates from recorded apartment
sales — measured, dated, and labeled, not a blog's guess.
Every formula is shown. Click "Show the work" — the same glass-box standard as the full product.
What is a cap rate?
The capitalization rate is the property's annual net operating income (NOI) divided by its value —
here, the ARV. NOI is rent minus operating expenses, before any mortgage, so cap rate compares two rentals
on equal footing regardless of financing. In this calculator NOI uses your market's measured property-tax rate
plus 25% of rent for vacancy, management, insurance, and maintenance (or your own flat ratio in Simple mode).
What is DSCR and why does it decide your BRRRR?
The debt-service coverage ratio is NOI divided by the annual mortgage payment. A DSCR lender typically
requires 1.20–1.25× — if your rent can't cover the payment by that margin, the bank shrinks your loan below
the advertised LTV, and the cash you planned to pull out stays in the deal. Most BRRRR calculators skip this and
overstate your cash-out; this one models it the way underwriting actually works.
From a calculator to actual deals
A calculator tells you whether a BRRRR works. It doesn't find the property priced low enough to leave
no cash in the deal — that's the real bottleneck.
DevelopmentIntelligence scores every parcel in your market from
public county data and hands you the mispriced, often off-market ones — with ARV, rehab, and rent already filled
in. Analyze a real address →
BRRRR calculator FAQ
What does BRRRR stand for?
Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat — buy a distressed property, renovate, rent it, refinance against the
higher after-repair value to recover your capital, and repeat on the next one.
How do you calculate cash left in a BRRRR deal?
All-in cost (purchase + purchase closing + rehab + taxes and insurance carried until the refinance) minus your
net refinance proceeds (the DSCR-checked loan minus refinance closing costs). If proceeds cover your all-in cost,
you've recovered all of your cash.
Why is my refinance smaller than ARV × LTV?
Because of the DSCR constraint: the lender caps the loan so your NOI covers the payment by their required
margin (usually 1.20–1.25×). When rent is thin relative to price, DSCR — not LTV — decides your loan.
What is a good cash-on-cash return for BRRRR?
Many investors target 8%+ on a buy-and-hold rental; in a clean BRRRR where most capital is recovered the
figure is far higher, and with all cash out it's effectively infinite. Judge it together with cash flow and the
DSCR — an infinite return on a negative-cash-flow property is still a bad deal.
How accurate is this calculator?
The math is exact and shown line by line. Accuracy depends on your inputs — above all the ARV (which sets the
refinance) and the rent. That's why DevelopmentIntelligence grounds both in recorded comparable sales with a
published, back-tested error rate rather than guesses.