Wholesale real estate calculator and MAO calculator

What this wholesale real estate calculator measures

Wholesale, in this calculator, means you contract with a seller and assign that contract to an end buyer for a fee. The end buyer is the person who will actually pay for the rehab and the resale. Your MAO calculator has to leave that buyer a deal they will accept, and it has to leave you a fee that covers your own costs. The headlines are the max allowable offer, the contract price, and the wholesale profit.

Max allowable offer is the most the end buyer should pay, all-in, under the rule you set. Contract price is that offer minus your assignment fee, which is the most you should agree to pay the seller if the fee is going to stay intact. Wholesale profit is the assignment fee minus your costs, such as marketing or earnest money you will not get back. It is not the end buyer's profit.

The free inputs are after-repair value, rehab, and the rule percent. The fee, the buyer's closing costs, and your costs stay on the defaults so the formula is stable. The paid wholesale calculator is where you type the actual purchase price and see whether that contract clears the rule.

Formula

Max allowable offer equals after-repair value times the rule percent, minus the rehab budget, minus the end buyer's closing costs. The default rule is 70%. That is a shorthand, not a law. A buyer who needs 65% because selling costs are heavy will not care that you used 70. Change the percent when you know the buyer's number.

Contract price equals the max allowable offer minus the assignment fee. The default fee is $10,000. If the offer is $165,000 and the fee is $10,000, the contract with the seller is $155,000, and the buyer still pays $165,000 once the fee is added. The buyer's all-in figure is the contract plus the fee plus rehab plus the buyer's closing costs, which is the same as the max allowable offer plus rehab plus closing costs only when the fee was already removed from the contract. The engine keeps those steps explicit.

Wholesale profit equals the assignment fee minus the wholesaler's costs. The default costs are $500, so the default profit is $9,500 as long as you actually collect the full fee. The end buyer's profit, shown in the worked example but not as a free headline, subtracts selling costs of 8% of ARV and ignores the buyer's holding costs and loan. It is a sketch of the buyer's room, not their underwriting.

Example

Worked example

Illustrative example. The offer, contract price, and fee below use the wholesale sample. They are not a contract this company assigned.

The MAO sample uses after-repair value $300,000, rehab $40,000, and a 70% rule. The end buyer's closing costs are $5,000. The assignment fee is $10,000 and the wholesaler's own costs are $500. Max allowable offer is $165,000, which is 70% of ARV minus rehab minus the buyer's closing costs. Contract price is $155,000, which is that offer minus the assignment fee. Wholesale profit is $9,500, the fee minus the wholesaler's costs. The end buyer's estimated profit before holding and loan costs is $66,000 after selling costs of 8% of ARV. Purchase price stays blank in this free sample, so the page does not grade the contract. Assigning contracts or marketing properties you do not own may require a real estate license in your state; consult a real estate attorney.

Move the rule from 70% to 65% and the max allowable offer drops by 5% of ARV before anything else changes. Move rehab up and both the offer and the contract price drop by the same dollars. The fee does not move unless you are in the paid calculator, where the fee is an input. If the contract price you already shook hands on is higher than the contract price shown here, the fee has to shrink or the buyer is over the rule.

Contractor assumptions

Rehab is the end buyer's lump-sum budget, not a scope this website priced. The MAO falls as that budget rises. If the buyer's contractor says $70,000 and you used $40,000, your offer is too high by $30,000 and the assignment is the part that usually gets cut. There is no line-item estimator and no cost database behind the field.

Do not treat the default $40,000 as a typical rehab. It is a starting number so the formula has something to subtract. Replace it. The calculator has not seen the house, and no one is offering to do the work.

The buyer's closing costs default to $5,000, a flat amount, not a percent. Title, lender fees, and inspections move that number. Selling costs used only in the buyer's profit sketch are 8% of ARV. Neither figure is a closing statement. Ask the buyer what they need left in the deal, then set the rule and the rehab to match.

Common pitfalls

Quoting the one-line 70% rule and skipping the end buyer's closing costs prices the contract too high for the formula this page actually uses. The max allowable offer subtracts those costs.

Wholesale profit is the assignment fee minus your costs. It is not the end buyer's resale profit, and a fee you cannot collect is not profit.

What stays on the subscription

The paid version adds the rest of the wholesale worksheet, including the purchase price you would actually pay, and saved deals. The free wholesale real estate calculator keeps the fee at $10,000 and your costs at $500. Assigning contracts or marketing properties you do not own may require a real estate license in your state; consult a real estate attorney. The subscription is $9.99 a month after the 48-hour card trial. Founding price is $5.99 a month for the first 100 subscribers.

The output is an estimate for a contract you might assign. It is not legal advice about whether you need a license, and it is not the buyer's full underwriting. Their loan, hold, and selling costs can erase the profit this sketch shows.

Questions