How much rehab can a flip absorb after hard money costs?

• The typical Q2 2026 flip sold for $60,526 more than it cost (ATTOM). With a hard money loan at 11.5% and 2 points, about $14,000 of rehab (4.1% of the resale price) would use up that whole spread.
• That room has shrunk by 47% in a year, from about $26,400 in Q2 2025, as ATTOM's typical ROI fell from 27.6% to 21.5%.
• ATTOM cites flipping veterans' estimate that rehab and other costs typically run 20% to 33% of after-repair value. That is roughly 5 to 8 times the break-even room on the typical flip today, so the typical spread mostly fits lighter projects.
• In Salt Lake City, Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio, the typical spread did not cover financing, buying, and selling costs even with zero rehab. In Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New Orleans, it left room for more than half the purchase price.

Loan terms move the answer quickly on a typical flip. At 13% and 3 points the Q2 2026 room falls to about $9,900; at 10% and 2 points it rises to about $15,700.

The $200K to $300K band had the most room in dollars. The $300K to $400K band earned a lower typical ROI (20%), and because the loan, points, and selling costs all scale with price, its room fell to about $12,700 even on a bigger house.

ATTOM defines a flip as an arms-length sale of a single-family home or condo that was bought in another arms-length sale within the prior 12 months. Its gross profit is resale price minus purchase price, and gross ROI is gross profit divided by the purchase price. Neither includes rehab or other costs. Because ATTOM counts every such resale within 12 months, the typical spread can include wholesale double closings and resales with little or no rehab; it is not adjusted for the work done.

We back out the implied purchase price (gross profit divided by ROI: $281,516 for Q2 2026) and the implied resale price (purchase plus gross profit). Then we solve for the rehab budget R that sets profit to zero:

R / P = (ROI − fixed costs) / (1 + points + rate × years held ÷ 2)

Fixed costs, as a share of the purchase price P, are the loan interest and points on the purchase portion of the loan, buying costs, selling costs on the resale price, and holding costs on the resale price for the days held. Rehab is drawn evenly over the hold, so on average it carries half the hold's interest. The same formula runs for each quarter, price band, and metro. The CSV download has every input and result.

• Hard money loan covers 90% of the purchase price plus 100% of rehab; points are charged on the whole loan.
• Loan terms: 10% rate, 2 points; 11.5% rate, 2 points; 13% rate, 3 points (base case is 11.5% and 2 points). These are our assumptions, not survey data.
• Buying costs 2% of purchase; selling costs 6% of resale.
• Taxes, insurance, and utilities while held: 1.2% of resale value per year.
• Price bands use the band midpoint; metros use the national 161-day hold because ATTOM does not publish metro hold times in the release.
• ATTOM's figures are the typical values it reports for all flips, so the implied purchase and resale prices describe a typical flip, not an exact median house. Results describe typical values nationally and in each metro, not a forecast for any property.

• ATTOM, Q2 2026 U.S. Home Flipping ReportData as of: Q2 2026 (published October 1, 2026). Retrieved 2026-11-02. Typical gross flip profit, gross flip ROI, days held, ROI by purchase-price band, and ROI for named metros over 1 million people.