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How to Analyze Flips and Rehab Projects
How to Analyze Flips and Rehab Projects

Calculate acquisition costs, rehab budgets, holding costs, projected profit and ROI for flips.

Cindy Bellford avatar
Written by Cindy Bellford
Updated over a week ago

As a flipper, you need to calculate how much cash you'll need to purchase a distressed property, create a rehab budget and figure out your take-home profit and ROI.

This tutorial will show you how to analyze flips with DealCheck in just a few minutes.

Adding a New Property

Step 1: Click the "Add Property" Button from the Property List

Navigate to the flips list and click the Add Property button at the top right:

Add a new flip from the property list

 

Step 2: Select the "Enter Manually" Option

Our software allows you to import property data from public records or copy an existing property, but in this tutorial, we'll add the property manually and explain all of the parameters you can customize along the way.

Select the Enter Manually option to launch the step-by-step wizard:

New flip property wizard - enter manually button

Tip: you can save a lot of time by customizing your property templates and using one of them when adding new properties. Read this guide to learn how to do this.

 

Step 3: Fill in the Property Description

The first step is to enter basic details about the property, including a name, property type and address. All of the fields here are optional, so you can fill in as many details as you want:

New flip property wizard - property description

Here are the most important fields to fill in:

  • Name: this will be the name of the property used throughout our app. Some people simply use the property's address, while others like more creative names, like "3/1 SFR in South Park, Extensive Rehab"

  • Tags & Labels: you can add custom tags and labels to this property to help you categorize it, track its status and quickly find it later

  • Address: enter the address of the property to view it on the map, look up sales comps, as well as to access its public records later

  • Property Type: select the type of the property from the available options. This field is important, as it will enable or disable other fields based on your selection

  • Description: enter any of the basic home attributes that you know about this property, including bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, year built, parking, etc.

Click the Next Section button at the bottom of the page to continue:

New flip property wizard - property description next button

 

Step 4: Enter the Purchase Information

The next section describes the property purchase:

New flip property wizard - purchase

Here is what you should customize:

  • Purchase Price: the amount you're paying to purchase this property

  • After Repair Value: the estimated market value of the property after the rehab work is complete. This will be the sales price of the property at the end of the flip

  • Financing (Purchase): if you're going to use financing to purchase and rehab this property, enter the details of your loan in this section, including the loan type, interest rate, and term. Disable financing if this is a cash purchase

  • Purchase Costs: these are all costs and fees associated with purchasing the property, also called closing costs. Examples include loan points, escrow fees and property inspection fees. You can enter a total amount as a percentage of the purchase price, or click the Itemize button and enter a detailed list of each purchase cost separately

Click the Next Section button at the bottom of the page to continue:

 

New flip property wizard - purchase next button

Step 5: Enter the Rehab Information

Use the Rehab section to customize your rehab budget for this project and enter all of the holding costs you'll have while the rehab work is underway:

New flip property wizard - rehab

First, you'll want to customize your rehab items and their costs.

Although you can enter a total rehab dollar amount, you'll most likely want to itemize and break down your rehab budget. Click the Itemize button and enter all of your anticipated scope of work items in the provided worksheet:

New flip property wizard - rehab costs

Tip: see this guide to learn how to create reusable rehab budgets and scope of work templates to help you quickly analyze new projects.

You can also customize these additional rehab fields:

  • Cost Overrun: this is the anticipated increase of the rehab budget beyond the originally planned amount. Think of it as a safety buffer in case you have unexpected expenses

  • Holding Period: enter the amount of time you anticipate it will take to finish the rehab and sell this property

Next, customize the recurring holding costs you're going to have while you're rehabbing this property. You can enter an estimated monthly amount or itemize the holding costs one at a time:

New flip property wizard - holding costs

Click the Next Section button at the bottom of the page to continue:

New flip property wizard - rehab next button

 

Step 6: Enter Projected Selling Costs

The final section of the wizard allows you to customize your selling costs.

You can enter an estimated total amount as a percentage of the ARV, or break down all costs separately by clicking the Itemize button:

New flip property wizard - selling costs

When finished, click the Save Property button at the bottom of the page to add this property to your dashboard:

New flip property wizard - save property button

Viewing the Property's Analysis

Now that you've added this property, you can view a full breakdown of the purchase requirements, holding costs and projected profit on the Property Analysis page:

Flip property analysis

Tip: hover over the question mark icons next to any metric to view their descriptions and calculation formulas.

If you need to edit any of the parameters of this deal later, go to the Purchase Worksheet page from the property menu on the left side:

Purchase worksheet link in property menu

 

Adjusting the Length of the Rehab

One of the major factors affecting your profit from a flip is the holding period - the length of time it will take to rehab and sell the property. Longer holding periods will increase your expenses and decrease your profits.

You can quickly adjust the holding period of your flip from the Property Analysis page by dragging the slider above the Holding Costs section:

Flip property holding period slider

As you do this, you'll notice your holding costs, profit and returns adjusting as well. If you find a new holding period you're happy with, you can quickly save it by clicking the save button to the right of the slider:

Flip property save holding period button

 

Tip: you can also view profit projections for different holding periods side-by-side by going to the Profit Projections page using the menu on the left side.

What's Next?

Once you've added a new flip, it will remain in your account and you can come back to it at any time from the property list:

Flip property list

Here are some other things you can do with this property:

Note: the above screenshots were taken from our website, but the same features can be found in our iOS and Android apps as well.

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