BRRRR Calculator — Free Refinance & Cash-on-Cash Analyzer

BRRRR only works if the refinance actually spits cash back out. Infinite cash-on-cash is the point. Cash left in the deal is the hangover.

Buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat is a capital recycling machine, not a slogan. The machine has two phases. Phase one spends money: purchase, rehab, closing, hold. Phase two tries to replace that stack with a long-term loan based on ARV. If the new loan is larger than what you sunk, you pull cash out and the rental can run on a thin leftover basis. If the new loan is smaller, you just built a rental the expensive way and called it a strategy.

Total invested is purchase + rehab + closing + holding. Refi loan is ARV × LTV. Cash out is refi loan minus purchase minus closing — a simple view of what the new loan can replace on the way in. Cash left in is max(0, total invested − refi loan). That leftover is the denominator for cash-on-cash. If it is zero or the refi more than covers you, CoC is infinite. That is the badge you want, not a vanity cap rate.

Stabilized operations use rent, vacancy, management, taxes, insurance, and maintenance. NOI is effective rent minus those ops. Cash flow is NOI minus the new P&I. A recycle with negative cash flow is a trap. You got your money out and bought a job that writes you a bill every month.

Score is about capital, not vibes. Under a thousand left in is near-infinite. Under ten thousand is a strong recycle. More than that and you still have a chunk of your next down payment stuck in last month's project. That can still be a fine rental. It is a slower BRRRR.

LTV is where people cheat. Seventy-five percent of a wishful ARV is not 75% of the appraisal you will get. Run this twice: once at the ARV you want, once at 10% less. If the second run leaves you twenty thousand in, you need a cheaper purchase or a cheaper rehab, not a better pep talk.

When the cash-out number looks magical, check that holding costs include the real vacancy after rehab — the month the house sits waiting on the appraiser. BRRRR holds are longer than flip holds for a reason.

The identities

Cash left in = max(0, Invested − Refi loan)
CoC = Annual cash flow / Cash left in

If cash left in is zero, cash-on-cash is treated as infinite.

How people blow the result

• Using purchase-price LTV on an ARV refinance.
• Forgetting vacancy and management so NOI looks like gross rent.
• Counting cash-out as profit. It is your money coming home, not a gain.

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