BRRRR recycles capital through a cash-out refinance at the after-repair value (ARV), not the purchase price. This calculator's own math is: cash left in the deal = total project cost − (ARV × refinance LTV). The refinance rate you enter now competes with the Freddie Mac 30-year average of 6.71% (week of September 3, 2026) — a higher refinance rate doesn't change how much capital comes back, but it does change whether the property still cash-flows once it's out.
Two separate questions this calculator answers
The module underneath this page tracks two things that get conflated constantly: how much of your capital the refinance returns, and whether the refinanced property can still pay for itself. The first is pure arithmetic — total project cost (purchase + rehab + holding + closing) minus the refinance loan amount (ARV × refi LTV). The second depends on the monthly mortgage payment that refinance loan carries at whatever rate you enter, weighed against net operating income. A deal can score perfectly on the first question — 100% of capital recovered — and still fail the second, because a fully leveraged refinance is also the largest possible monthly payment on that property.
The refinance rate is the hinge, not just the ARV
Most BRRRR discussion focuses on the ARV, because it decides how much capital comes back. But the refinance rate decides whether the property is worth having recovered capital into in the first place. At 6.71% on a 30-year term (Freddie Mac PMMS, week ending September 3, 2026), a fully leveraged $180,000 refinance costs about $1,164 a month before taxes, insurance, or a single dollar of maintenance reserve. Two years of a lower average rate would have cut that payment meaningfully on the same loan amount — the strategy's mechanics (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat) haven't changed, but the monthly cost of holding the fully-recycled property has moved with the rate environment, independent of anything the investor did.
That's the practical case for not always maximizing the refinance LTV even when the appraisal supports it. Pulling out every available dollar recycles the most capital, but it also produces the highest possible payment on the property you're left holding. This calculator's DSCR output exists for exactly that check — net operating income divided by annual debt service — because a lender will apply the same test before agreeing to the refinance at all.
Reading the outputs together, not in isolation
Cash left in the deal and DSCR need to be read side by side. A deal that recycles 100% of capital but produces a DSCR below what a lender requires isn't a completed BRRRR — it's a stalled one, because the refinance that was supposed to fund the next purchase may not close at all. Conversely, a deal that leaves some cash in but comfortably clears a lender's DSCR threshold is often the more repeatable version of the strategy: less capital recovered per deal, but each one is a property that actually cash-flows once refinanced, rather than one engineered purely to maximize the amount pulled out.
Methodology
Cash left in the deal, refinance loan amount, monthly mortgage payment, and DSCR are computed exactly as this calculator's module does: total project cost minus (ARV × refi LTV), and a standard fixed-rate amortization on the resulting loan balance. The worked example's mortgage payment uses the Freddie Mac PMMS 30-year fixed average for the week ending September 3, 2026 as the illustrative rate; no other rate or appraisal figure is assumed.
Sources
- Freddie Mac — Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) — accessed 2026-09-07