70% Rule Formula - Upright (2024)

What Is The 70% Rule For Flipping Houses?

Based upon years of experience, flippers developed a quick rule of thumb called the 70% Rule to help them quickly and roughly analyze the Maximum Purchase Price they should offer for a property.

The 70% Rule states that you should buy a property at 70% of the After Repair Value minus the Repair Costs.

<span style="padding: 6px;margin-right: 6px;font-size: 16px;"class="lesson-quote--tag blue">Maximum Purchase Price</span> = (After Repair Value * 70%) - Repair Costs

Why Do House Flippers Use 70%?

In order to successfully flip houses you need to buy properties at a big enough discount to make a profit and cover all of the other 'Fixed Costs' (buying, holding, selling & financing costs).

When you multiply the After Repair Value by 70% you are discounting the property by 30% to cover your Profit and Fixed Costs.

Generally speaking, the 30% reduction is broken down as roughly 15% for your Profit and 15% for the Fixed Costs.

<div class="lesson-quote-block u-bg-teal-25"> <div class="lesson-quote--container"> <div class="lesson-quote--eyebrow u-text-darkteal">70%Rule Formula Example</div><div class="lesson-quote--col-1 u-text-blue" style="font-size:16px;">A flipper finds a distressed property that a seller is asking $85,000 in a neighborhood with $200,000 resale values.Based upon your estimates you feel the property needs $65,000 in repairs.<p style="padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:0px;">What Should the flipper offer based upon the 70%Rule? <p style="padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:0px;">In this scenario, the seller is asking for $85,000 which is $10,000 more than the recommended purchase price of the 70%Rule.</div> </div> </div>

Can You Offer More Than 70% For A Property?

<span class="lesson-quote--tag orange">REALITY CHECK</span>
<p>Yes! You Can Offer More Or Less Than The 70% Rule! In Fact, You Need To Establish A % Rule That Works Best For You And Your Market!</p>

It's important to remember that the 70% Rule is just a rule of thumb to help you quickly gauge whether a property is a good deal or not.

The 70% Rule will vary from investor-to-investor and market to market.

A Cash Investor that also has their Real Estate License can save money on expensive loan payments and save 3% commission on the sale, so they may be able to offer more aggressively at 75 to 80% of ARV. Whereas, an Investor that is using a Hard Money Lender and Real Estate Agent to sell their property, may need to buy the property at 65 to 75% of ARV to account for their higher 'Fixed Costs'.

Your real estate market will also affect the profit margins that you can make on your deals. In today's hot and competitive marketplace, and especially on the East and West Coasts many investors profit margins are shrinking from 15% of ARV down to 10%. In order to get deals many investors are offering more aggressively at 70% to 80% of ARV.

For this reason, it's important for you to customize YOUR OWN PERSONAL % that you will use for acquiring your deals in your real estate market.

How To Calculate Your Own % Rule

When you are first starting to analyze deals you should use the more detailed Maximum Purchase Price Formula approach to calculate all of the project costs on your projects.

Calculating all of the projects will require you to calculate all of the the Buying, Holding, Selling & Financing Costs on your projects and help you determine an accurate % that you can use for your '70% Rule'.

The 70% Rule for Flipping Houses

What is the 70% Rule?

The 70% Rule is a heuristic used by real estate investors, especially house flippers, to quickly evaluate the maximum purchase price they should pay for a property. The formula is:

[ \text{Maximum Purchase Price} = (\text{After Repair Value} \times 70\%) - \text{Repair Costs} ]

Here:

After Repair Value (ARV): The estimated value of the property after all repairs and renovations are completed.
Repair Costs: The total estimated cost to repair and renovate the property to reach its After Repair Value.

Why Use the 70% Rule?

House flippers use this rule to ensure they purchase properties at a substantial discount to account for various costs and to ensure profitability. The 30% discount is typically broken down as:

15% for Profit: This is the return on investment that the flipper aims to achieve.
15% for Fixed Costs: These include expenses like buying costs, holding costs, selling costs, and financing costs.

Can You Offer More Than 70%?

Absolutely, the 70% Rule serves as a guideline, not a strict rule. Various factors influence the percentage you might use:

Investor Type: For instance, a cash investor with a real estate license might offer 75% to 80% of ARV due to savings on loan payments and commissions.
Market Conditions: In competitive markets like the East and West Coasts, investors might offer more aggressively, even up to 80% of ARV.
Cost Structure: Depending on your fixed costs (e.g., financing costs, agent commissions), you might need to adjust your purchase percentage.

Calculating Your Own % Rule

To determine a more personalized percentage for purchasing properties, you can use a detailed approach that accounts for all costs involved:

[ \text{Purchase Percentage} = 1 - \left( \frac{\text{Buying Costs} + \text{Holding Costs} + \text{Selling Costs} + \text{Financing Costs} + \text{Profit}}{\text{After Repair Value}} \right) ]

By calculating all these costs, you can arrive at a purchase percentage tailored to your specific situation.

Example:

Let's assume:

Repair Costs = $65,000
Buying Costs = $2,000
Holding Costs = $3,750
Selling Costs = $16,000
Financing Costs = $7,500
Desired Profit = $30,000

Using the formula, the purchase percentage comes out to be around 70% of the After Repair Value, aligning with the general 70% Rule.

Conclusion

While the 70% Rule provides a quick and straightforward method to evaluate potential flip properties, it's essential to adapt this rule according to your investment strategy, market conditions, and cost structure. Continual analysis and refinement of your purchase percentage will help you make informed decisions and maximize profitability in the house flipping business.