Deal Breakdown: Ohio Duplex BRRRR — $72k purchase to cash-out refi

The property was a 2-unit duplex in a stable Ohio neighborhood with good rental demand from local manufacturing jobs. Listed at $89k but sat for 90 days due to deferred maintenance. After a drive-by and quick comp check in the Deal Analyzer, we modeled it at $72k purchase price with $38k in targeted rehab.

Underwriting started in the Deal Analyzer. We entered the address (for market comps), purchase price $72,000, projected rents of $925 per unit ($1,850 combined), 7% vacancy, 9% property management, $180/mo taxes+insurance combined, and $3,200 in reserves/maintenance. The analyzer returned 11.4% cash-on-cash before debt and a stabilized cap rate of 9.8% on the all-in basis — strong for the market.

We also cross-checked with the Rental Yield Calculator to confirm gross yield above 30% which is our minimum for BRRRR plays. The numbers penciled only because we bought below 70% of ARV and kept rehab conservative. Any higher purchase price and the refi math would have fallen apart.

Key lesson: always run the full proforma in the Deal Analyzer before making the offer. The tool flagged that our rent assumption was 4% above the 3-month Zillow average for the block, so we haircut the rents to $1,780 combined for the conservative model and still cleared our hurdles.

We used a private hard-money lender for the purchase: 65% LTV on the $72k purchase ($46,800 loan), 12% interest, 3 points, 6-month term, interest-only. We brought $28,200 cash to close (down payment + points + closing costs + initial reserves).

Before wiring, we modeled the short-term financing pressure in the Cash-on-Cash Calculator and the BRRRR Calculator's purchase phase. The monthly interest-only payment was ~$470, plus we set aside $1,800 for the first two months of carrying costs. This kept our total cash at risk under $31k until rehab started.

The BRRRR Calculator's financing tab let us plug the exact loan terms and see the impact on cash-to-close and early-month burn. Without that quick scenario, we would have under-estimated the points and reserves by $2,400.

Rule we followed: never use hard money without running the exact terms through the BRRRR Calculator first. The 3 points and 6-month balloon create real timeline pressure that changes your rehab scope decisions.

Rehab was limited to value-add items that directly supported the ARV and rent bump: new roofs on both units ($9,200), full kitchen refresh on unit B ($6,800), new LVP flooring throughout, paint, light fixtures, and bath updates ($12,400 total), plus $4,600 for permits, dumpsters, and contingency.

We built the line-item budget inside the Rehab Estimator first, then imported the $38,400 total into the BRRRR Calculator's rehab phase. The estimator's contingency slider showed that a 12% overrun would still keep us inside the 70% ARV rule, giving us confidence to proceed.

The Fix & Flip Calculator was also used in parallel to pressure-test the 'as-is' vs 'as-repaired' spread even though this was a BRRRR not a flip. It confirmed our $110k all-in cost against a $168k conservative ARV left 34% margin — exactly the cushion the BRRRR math required.

We tracked every draw against the scope in a shared spreadsheet. Weekly photos + receipt uploads kept the hard-money lender happy and prevented scope creep. The entire rehab took 7.5 weeks — under our 8-week target — because we pre-ordered materials and used a two-man crew we had vetted on a prior deal.

Both units leased within 11 days of rehab completion at $920 and $895 (slightly below our modeled $925/$925 because we wanted qualified tenants fast for the refi seasoning). Combined $1,815/mo gross.

We used the BRRRR Calculator's 'stabilization' and 'refinance' tabs to model the cash-out. After 60 days of on-time rent (the minimum the portfolio lender wanted), we ordered the appraisal. It came in at $172,000 — $4k above our conservative ARV.

The cash-out refi was 75% of appraised value ($129,000) at 7.25% 30-year fixed, DSCR-style but on the portfolio. After paying off the hard-money note ($46,800 + accrued interest ~$2,100) and $3,800 in refi costs, we received $76,300 wire. Our total cash invested across purchase, rehab, and carrying was ~$71,400. We walked away with $4,900 profit plus a fully leveraged duplex throwing off ~$680/mo cash flow after the new P&I of $883.

The BRRRR Calculator showed the exact post-refi capital left in the deal ($0 on a cash basis after the pull), the new debt service, and the 14.2% cash-on-cash on the remaining equity. We immediately started sourcing the next deal with the recovered capital.

At this point we had three choices: sell for ~$172k (net ~$55k after costs, but we would lose the cash flow), keep as-is with the new permanent loan, or repeat the BRRRR on another property using the $76k recovered. We chose the last option — the entire point of the strategy.

The Deal Analyzer now shows this property contributing $680/mo to our portfolio cash flow with 1.8% monthly principal paydown. Five years of that plus modest appreciation puts us in a position to do a rate-and-term refi or sell later if markets shift.

Every number above was modeled live in the calculators before we made the offer, before we signed the rehab contract, and before we applied for the refi. That discipline is what turns a 'sounds good' deal into a repeatable system.