BRRRR is Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. You buy a distressed property (often with short-term or hard-money financing), renovate it to force appreciation, rent it out, then do a cash-out refinance based on the higher after-repair value. The refinance ideally returns most or all of your invested cash, which you carry into the next deal — and repeat.

The cash-out refinance is sized at a percent of the after-repair value (the refi LTV), commonly 70–75%. From that new loan you pay off the acquisition loan and the refinance closing costs; whatever remains is returned to you. If the property appraised high enough and you bought and rehabbed cheaply, the returned cash can equal or exceed everything you put in.

If the cash-out refinance returns all of the money you invested — leaving zero (or negative) cash in the deal — then any positive cash flow is a return on essentially no remaining capital. Cash-on-cash return divides by the cash left in the deal, so as that approaches zero the return approaches infinity. This calculator flags that case explicitly.

To recover your capital, the refinance loan (ARV × LTV) must cover both your acquisition loan payoff and the cash you invested. That only works when your all-in cost — purchase, rehab, holding, points, interest, and closing — is meaningfully below the ARV. The 'equity captured' figure (ARV minus all-in cost) is the cushion that makes a BRRRR work.

Yes. Pulling out maximum cash means a larger loan and a higher payment, which can erase your cash flow. A good BRRRR balances capital recovery against a payment the rent can still cover. This calculator shows the post-refinance NOI, debt service, monthly cash flow, and DSCR so you can see whether the stabilized rental holds up.