BRRRR Calculator

BRRRR is short for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat — a rental-portfolio strategy popularized by David Greene and now standard playbook for active Texas investors. The mechanic that makes BRRRR distinctive: each deal is engineered to return its own capital via the refinance step, so the same $50K–$150K cash base can fund acquisition after acquisition rather than getting buried under conventional 25% down payments.

Why investors love BRRRR

Conventional buy-and-hold pins 20-25% of the purchase price in each deal — and you do not get that capital back until you sell. A $300K rental at 25% down ties up $75K. Five deals later, you have $375K in dead equity and your liquidity is gone. BRRRR breaks that ceiling: you acquire the property well below market (often distressed), force appreciation via rehab, and refinance to the new value. If the math works, you walk out of the refi with most or all of the cash you started with — ready for deal #2.

The deal math, in order

Step one is the all-in cost: purchase + closing + rehab + holding costs during the rehab period. Step two is the refi loan: ARV (after-repair value) × refi LTV (typically 75% on a DSCR cash-out). Step three is the cash left in deal: all-in − refi cash-out + refi closing. If that number is at or near zero, you have a clean BRRRR. Step four is monthly cash flow: gross rent − operating expenses − new P&I. That cash flow divided by the cash left in deal gives you the cash-on-cash return — the headline yield investors compare across deals.

When BRRRR fails

Three failure modes. ARV misses are the most common — your model says $300K, the appraiser says $275K, and suddenly your refi loan is $18K smaller than you planned. Rehab over-budget is the second — projects routinely run 15-25% over for first-time flippers and 5-10% for experienced operators; the calculator above lets you stress-test by bumping the rehab number. Negative post-refi cash flow is the third — the deal recycles capital but then leaks $200/mo forever; that is a worse outcome than a slightly imperfect BRRRR with $20K left in but $400/mo of clean cash flow.

Texas BRRRR markets

The Texas submarkets that consistently produce BRRRR-grade deals share three traits: meaningful inventory of distressed single-family product, ARV momentum supported by recent comps, and rent levels that service DSCR refi math. In DFW that means Oak Cliff, parts of East Dallas, Garland, and the inner suburbs of Mesquite and Grand Prairie. In Houston, Houston Heights, EaDo, and Independence Heights. In San Antonio, inside-410 and the Stone Oak fringe. In Austin, East Austin and parts of North Loop — though Austin BRRRR math has tightened materially as appreciation has flattened.