REAL ESTATE INVESTING GUIDE
ARV — After Repair Value — is the most important number in wholesale and fix-and-flip real estate investing. Understanding what it is, how to calculate it, and how to use it accurately is the foundation of every sound investment decision.
Browse Deals with ARV DataDEFINITION
ARV stands for After Repair Value — the estimated market value of a property after all necessary repairs, updates, and renovations have been completed. It represents what the property would sell for in move-in-ready condition on the open market.
ARV is not the current value of the property. A distressed home with deferred maintenance, outdated finishes, and structural issues has a current value well below its ARV. The spread between the two — the gap between what you pay and what the property will be worth after renovation — is where investor returns come from.
For wholesale investors, ARV determines the entire deal structure. It dictates the maximum price you can offer a seller, the minimum spread your buyer needs to be interested, and whether a deal is viable at all.
THE INVESTOR FORMULA
Maximum Offer = (ARV × 70%) − Repair Costs
The 70% rule ensures the end buyer retains enough margin to cover holding costs, closing costs, and profit after completing the renovation and reselling the property.
HOW TO CALCULATE ARV
ARV is calculated by analyzing comparable sales — also called "comps" — of similar properties that have recently sold in the same area in fully renovated condition. This is the same methodology used by licensed appraisers to determine market value.
The process: identify 3–5 recently sold properties that are similar in size, location, age, and condition to what the subject property will look like after renovation. Average their price per square foot and apply it to the subject property's square footage. Adjust for meaningful differences — an extra bathroom, garage, or significantly larger lot.
Key factors for selecting good comps:
Recent sales (last 3–6 months)
Comparable sales should be recent. Market conditions shift, and sales from 12+ months ago may not accurately reflect today's value.
Similar size and configuration
Comps should be within 20% of the subject property's square footage and have a similar bedroom/bathroom count.
Same or adjacent neighborhood
Price per square foot can vary significantly by block in some markets. Comps should come from the same immediate area — ideally within 0.5 miles.
Renovated condition
Since ARV assumes a fully repaired property, comps should be in renovated or move-in-ready condition — not distressed properties or homes that also need work.
No unusual sale conditions
Exclude short sales, foreclosures, and estate sales from comps where possible. These transactions can skew ARV downward and don't reflect open-market value.
WHERE ARV IS USED
Flippers use ARV to determine the maximum price they can pay for a distressed property and still profit after renovation. The standard rule is to stay at or below 70% of ARV minus repair costs.
Wholesalers price deals based on ARV to ensure their end buyers have enough margin. A wholesale price that leaves 30–35% spread from ARV is the standard benchmark for a viable deal.
Hard money and bridge lenders base loan amounts on ARV rather than current value. Understanding ARV helps investors know how much financing is available for a given deal.
WHAT TO AVOID
Using Zestimate as ARV
Zillow's Zestimate is an automated consumer estimate, not an investment-grade valuation. It frequently misses neighborhood-level nuances and current distress conditions. Use actual comparable sales instead.
Not accounting for neighborhood ceiling
Every neighborhood has a price ceiling — the maximum value any home in that area will sell for regardless of renovations. Renovating beyond that ceiling doesn't increase ARV proportionally.
Using retail comps for a wholesale market
If a neighborhood's comps are all agent-listed retail homes, verify that renovated investor flips are actually achieving those prices. Buyer pool and property condition must align.
Overestimating scope of renovation
ARV assumes the property is fully renovated to a competitive standard for its market. Underestimating what "fully renovated" means leads to overestimated ARV.
HOW DEELMAP USES ARV
Every deal listed on DeelMap includes an ARV estimate alongside the asking price. This gives buyers immediate visibility into the potential spread — the difference between what you pay and what the property will be worth after renovation.
Rather than spending hours pulling comps and running your own analysis before deciding whether a deal is even worth looking at, DeelMap structures this data upfront. You can evaluate dozens of deals in the time it would take to manually analyze one.
START FINDING DEALS
Browse thousands of verified wholesale deals on DeelMap — each one with ARV, spread, and property details already structured. Free for buyers.