70% rule calculator.
Your max allowable offer.
MAO = ARV × 0.70 − rehab. The 70 percent rule caps your offer at 70% of after-repair value minus the rehab budget. The 30% you leave on the table is what pays for holding, closing, commissions, and profit — spend it at the purchase and the flip stops working.
Two numbers in.
One ceiling out.
Start with ARV — the price a comparable, fully renovated house on the same block actually closed at, not the number you hope to get, which is why it pays to know how to estimate ARV from comps before you trust it. Enter your rehab budget next, contingency included, because the line item you skip is the one that eats the spread. The calculator returns MAO = ARV × 0.70 − rehab: the most you can pay and still leave roughly 30% of ARV to absorb holding costs, both sides of closing, commissions, and profit. Type your actual offer into the third field to see whether it lands under, near, or over that ceiling, and how much equity survives at the closing table. Use the custom percentage field when your market or your lender demands a different margin — tighter in slow markets, looser in metros where finished houses sell in a weekend.
A ceiling.
Not a price.
The formula.
MAO = ARV × 0.70 − rehab. On a $200,000 after-repair value with $40,000 of work, the ceiling is $100,000. Offer more and you are funding the margin out of your own pocket.
The thresholds.
70% is the default, not the ceiling of the ceiling. Tight inventory pushes experienced flippers to 75%; heavy rehabs, slow resale markets, and first deals argue for 65% or less.
What the 30% covers.
The holdback is not profit. Financing points and interest, taxes and insurance while you hold, utilities, both sides of closing, agent commissions at resale, and the overrun nobody budgeted all come out of it first — the full 70 percent rule breakdown walks through where each dollar goes.
Before you offer.
Find deals that pass
the rule.
Verleon AI runs comps, estimates ARV, and scores every active listing for equity margin and rehab potential across all 50 states — so the properties you open already clear your max allowable offer.