BRRRR — Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat — is popular for one reason: done right, it lets you recycle the same down payment into deal after deal. The number that tells you whether it worked is the cash left in the deal after you refinance. Here’s how to calculate it.
The five steps
- Buy a property below market, usually with short-term financing like hard money or cash.
- Rehab it to force appreciation and make it rentable.
- Rent it to a qualified tenant so it produces income.
- Refinance into a long-term loan based on the new, higher value — pulling your invested cash back out.
- Repeat with the cash you recovered.
Cash in vs. cash recovered
First, total the cash you put in to acquire and stabilize the property:
Total Cash In = Down Payment + Rehab + Closing & Holding Costs
At refinance, the lender lends against the after-repair value (ARV), typically up to 75% of it. The cash you get back is whatever’s left after paying off the original acquisition financing:
Cash Recovered = (ARV × Refi LTV) − Loan Payoff
The number that matters: cash left in the deal
Subtract what you pulled back out from what you put in:
Cash Left in Deal = Total Cash In − Cash Recovered
If the refinance returns everything you invested, you’ve left $0 in the deal — an “infinite return,” because you now own a cash-flowing rental with none of your own money tied up. The closer you get to zero, the more times you can repeat the process.
Try it yourself
Model buy, rehab, rent, and refinance to see cash recovered and the cash left in the deal.
Open the BRRRR Calculator →A worked example
You buy a distressed property and stabilize it:
- Purchase price: $120,000 (25% down = $30,000)
- Rehab: $40,000
- Closing and holding costs: $10,000
- Total cash in: $80,000
After the rehab it appraises for an ARV of $220,000. You refinance at 75% LTV:
- New loan: $220,000 × 75% = $165,000
- Pay off the $90,000 acquisition loan
- Cash recovered: $165,000 − $90,000 = $75,000
So your cash left in the deal is $80,000 − $75,000 = $5,000. You pulled back nearly everything and kept a rental — a textbook BRRRR.
Don’t forget the cash flow check
Recovering your cash means nothing if the new, larger loan strangles the rental’s cash flow. A bigger refinance balance means a bigger payment, so always confirm the property still cash flows — and still clears your lender’s DSCR — at the new loan amount.
That tension is the heart of BRRRR: pull out too much and the rental goes negative; pull out too little and your money stays trapped. The right balance is a deal-by-deal calculation.
The bottom line
BRRRR works when the forced value at refinance returns most of your invested cash and the stabilized rental still cash flows. Model both before you buy.
Run the full sequence in the BRRRR Calculator to see cash recovered, cash left in the deal, and post-refi cash flow. Then sanity-check the refinance loan against the DSCR Loan Calculator to make sure it qualifies.