
What if you could grow your property portfolio by taking the cash (often, another person's cash) you used to acquire one home and recycling it into another residential or commercial property, end over end as long as you like?
That's the property of the BRRRR property investing technique.

It enables investors to purchase more than one residential or commercial property with the exact same funds (whereas traditional investing needs fresh cash at every closing, and thus takes longer to acquire residential or commercial properties).
So how does the BRRRR approach work? What are its advantages and disadvantages? How do you do it? And what things should you consider before BRRRR-ing a residential or commercial property?
That's what we'll cover in this guide.
BRRRR represents buy, rehab, rent, re-finance, and repeat. The BRRRR method is acquiring appeal because it enables investors to utilize the very same funds to purchase multiple residential or commercial properties and hence grow their portfolio more rapidly than standard realty investment methods.
To start, the genuine estate financier finds an excellent offer and pays a max of 75% of its ARV in money for the residential or commercial property. Most loan providers will only loan 75% of the ARV of the residential or commercial property, so this is essential for the refinancing phase.
( You can either use cash, tough cash, or private money to purchase the residential or commercial property)
Then the financier rehabs the residential or commercial property and leas it out to occupants to create consistent cash-flow.
Finally, the investor does what's called a cash-out refinance on the residential or commercial property. This is when a financial institution offers a loan on a residential or commercial property that the financier already owns and returns the cash that they used to acquire the residential or commercial property in the very first location.
Since the residential or commercial property is cash-flowing, the investor has the ability to spend for this new mortgage, take the cash from the cash-out refinance, and reinvest it into new units.
Theoretically, the BRRRR procedure can continue for as long as the investor continues to purchase smart and keep residential or commercial properties inhabited.
Here's a video from Ryan Dossey discussing the BRRRR procedure for novices.
An Example of the BRRRR Method
To comprehend how the BRRRR process works, it might be useful to stroll through a quick example.
Imagine that you discover a residential or commercial property with an ARV of $200,000.
You prepare for that repair costs will be about $30,000 and holding costs (taxes, insurance coverage, marketing while the residential or commercial property is uninhabited) will have to do with $5,000.
Following the 75% guideline, you do the following math ...
($ 200,000 x. 75) - $35,000 = $115,000
You offer the sellers $115,000 (the max deal) and they accept. You then find a tough cash loan provider to loan you $150,000 ($ 35,000 + $115,000) and give them a down payment (your own money) of $30,000.
Next, you do a cash-out re-finance and the brand-new lender accepts loan you $150,000 (75% of the residential or commercial property's value). You pay off the tough money lender and get your deposit of $30,000 back, which allows you to duplicate the procedure on a brand-new residential or commercial property.
Note: This is just one example. It's possible, for example, that you could obtain the residential or commercial property for less than 75% of ARV and end up taking home extra money from the cash-out re-finance. It's likewise possible that you might spend for all getting and rehab expenses out of your own pocket and after that recover that cash at the cash-out re-finance (rather than utilizing private money or tough money).
Learn How REISift Can Help You Do More Deals
The BRRRR Method, Explained Step By Step
Now we're going to walk you through the BRRRR technique one step at a time. We'll describe how you can find bargains, secure funds, calculate rehab expenses, bring in quality occupants, do a cash-out refinance, and repeat the entire procedure.
The initial step is to find bargains and acquire them either with cash, private cash, or hard money.
Here are a few guides we've developed to assist you with discovering top quality offers ...
How to Find Real Estate Deals Using Your Existing Data
The Ultimate Real Estate Investor Marketing Plan: Better Data, More Deals
We also recommend going through our 14 Day Auto Lead Gen Challenge - it only costs $99 and you'll learn how to produce a system that produces leads utilizing REISift.
Ultimately, you do not wish to purchase for more than 75% of the residential or commercial property's ARV. And preferably, you desire to purchase for less than that (this will lead to money after the cash-out refinance).
If you wish to discover private cash to acquire the residential or commercial property, then attempt ...
- Connecting to family and friends members
- Making the lender an equity partner to sweeten the deal
- Connecting with other service owners and financiers on social media
If you desire to find difficult cash to purchase the residential or commercial property, then attempt ...
- Searching for difficult money lending institutions in Google
- Asking a real estate agent who deals with financiers
- Asking for recommendations to hard cash lenders from local title companies
Finally, here's a fast breakdown of how REISift can help you find and protect more deals from your existing data ...
The next action is to rehab the residential or commercial property.
Your goal is to get the residential or commercial property to its ARV by investing as little cash as possible. You absolutely do not wish to spend too much on repairing the home, paying for additional home appliances and updates that the home doesn't need in order to be valuable.
That does not suggest you ought to cut corners, though. Ensure you hire credible specialists and repair whatever that needs to be fixed.
In the video listed below, Tyler (our creator) will show you how he approximates repair work costs ...
When purchasing the residential or commercial property, it's best to approximate your repair work costs a little bit higher than you expect - there are usually unforeseen repair work that come up during the rehabilitation stage.
Once the residential or commercial property is completely rehabbed, it's time to discover tenants and get it cash-flowing.
Obviously, you want to do this as quickly as possible so you can refinance the home and move onto acquiring other residential or commercial properties ... however don't hurry it.
Remember: the concern is to discover excellent renters.
We advise utilizing the 5 following requirements when thinking about occupants for your residential or commercial properties ...
1. Stable Employment
2. No Past Evictions
3. Good References
4. Sufficient Income
5. Good Financial History
It's much better to turn down a renter due to the fact that they don't fit the above requirements and lose a couple of months of cash-flow than it is to let a bad tenant in the home who's going to trigger you problems down the roadway.
Here's a video from Dude Real Estate that provides some excellent advice for discovering high-quality tenants.
Now it's time to do a cash-out refinance on the residential or commercial property. This will enable you to pay off your hard cash loan provider (if you utilized one) and recover your own costs so that you can reinvest it into an extra residential or commercial property.
This is where the rubber meets the roadway - if you found a bargain, rehabbed it effectively, and filled it with premium occupants, then the cash-out re-finance should go smoothly.
Here are the 10 finest cash-out re-finance lenders of 2021 according to Nerdwallet.
You might likewise find a regional bank that wants to do a cash-out re-finance. But keep in mind that they'll likely be a spices period of at least 12 months before the lender is prepared to offer you the loan - ideally, by the time you're made with repairs and have actually found occupants, this spices duration will be ended up.
Now you repeat the procedure!
If you utilized a private cash loan provider, they might be ready to do another handle you. Or you could use another tough cash lender. Or you might reinvest your cash into a brand-new residential or commercial property.
For as long as whatever goes efficiently with the BRRRR approach, you'll be able to keep buying residential or commercial properties without truly using your own cash.
Here are some pros and cons of the BRRRR realty investing technique.
High Returns - BRRRR requires very little (or no) out-of-pocket money, so your returns need to be sky-high compared to traditional real estate investments.
Scalable - Because BRRRR permits you to reinvest the very same funds into brand-new systems after each cash-out re-finance, the design is scalable and you can grow your portfolio really rapidly.
Growing Equity - With every residential or commercial property you purchase, your net worth and equity grow. This continues to grow with appreciation and make money from cash-flowing residential or commercial properties.
High-Interest Loans - If you're using a hard-money lender to BRRRR residential or commercial properties, then you'll likely be paying a high rates of interest. The objective is to rehab, rent, and refinance as quickly as possible, but you'll normally be paying the hard money loan providers for at least a year or so.
Seasoning Period - Most banks need a "spices period" before they do a cash-out refinance on a home, which shows that the residential or commercial property's cash-flow is steady. This is normally at least 12 months and often closer to two years.
Rehabbing - Rehabbing a residential or commercial property has its risks. You'll have to handle contractors, mold, asbestos, structural insufficiencies, and other unanticipated problems. Rehabbing isn't for the light of heart.
Appraisal Risk - Before you buy the residential or commercial property, you'll desire to make certain that your ARV calculations are air-tight. There's always a threat of the appraisal not coming through like you had actually hoped when refinancing ... that's why getting an excellent offer is so darn crucial.
When to BRRRR and When Not to BRRRR
When you're questioning whether you need to BRRRR a specific residential or commercial property or not, there are two concerns that we 'd advise asking yourself ...
1. Did you get an outstanding offer?
2. Are you comfy with rehabbing the residential or commercial property?
The very first concern is important because an effective BRRRR offer hinges on having found a good deal ... otherwise you might get in problem when you try to re-finance.
And the 2nd concern is essential since rehabbing a residential or commercial property is no small task. If you're not up to rehab the home, then you may think about wholesaling rather - here's our guide to wholesaling.
Want to find out more about the BRRRR approach?
Here are a few of our favorite books on the topics ...

Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Residential Or Commercial Property Investment Strategy Made Simple by David M. Greene
The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs: The Investor's Guide to Defining Your Renovation Plan, Building Your Budget, and Knowing Exactly How Much Everything Costs by J Scott
How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started by Brandon Turner
Final Thoughts on the BRRRR Method
The BRRRR technique is a fantastic way to invest in realty. It enables you to do so without utilizing your own money and, more importantly, it allows you to recover your capital so that you can reinvest it into new units.