BRRRR analysis: a 10-minute walkthrough using Scouq
BRRRR stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. The core idea is simple: buy a distressed property below market, renovate it, rent it out, refinance at the new appraised value to pull out your equity, and use that equity to fund the next deal. Done well, you can build a rental portfolio with relatively little capital trapped in any single property.
The math, however, is not simple. A BRRRR deal has more moving parts than a straightforward buy-and-hold or a fix-and-flip. You need to estimate ARV accurately, model rehab costs, project rental income, understand DSCR underwriting for the refi, and forecast how much equity you will actually recover. Most investors do this in a spreadsheet. That is fine, but it takes time and it is easy to make errors.
Here is a 10-minute walkthrough using Scouq to run the same analysis.
The deal
For this walkthrough, we will use a fictional but realistic example: a 3/1 single-family home in a rust-belt market, listed at $65,000, with deferred maintenance and a tax delinquency flag.
Step 1: Find the property (2 minutes)
Open Scouq and go to the Explore tab. Search for the address. If the property is in a covered county, you will see it on the map with its deal score.
For our example, the property scores a 71 out of 100 (labeled "Strong"). The score is high because the tax delinquency flag signals a motivated seller and the assessed value is $110,000 against a list price of $65,000. That gap is the first positive signal.
Click the property card to open the full deal view.
Step 2: Review the data panel (2 minutes)
The deal view shows:
- Owner information: out-of-state LLC mailing address (absentee owner, another motivation signal)
- Last sale: purchased in 2017 for $42,000
- Assessed value: $110,000
- Days on market: 87 (above average for this ZIP, which suggests the listing is stale and the seller may be open to a lower offer)
- Vacancy flag: USPS indicates no mail delivery for 90+ days
All of this data comes from public records. Scouq has assembled it in one place so you do not have to pull it from four different county portals.
Step 3: Switch to BRRRR strategy (1 minute)
Below the property data panel, there is a strategy selector. Click "BRRRR." The view updates to show a BRRRR-specific analysis.
Step 4: Input your assumptions (3 minutes)
Scouq pre-populates several fields from public data and from comparable sales in the area, but you should review and adjust each one:
Purchase price: Start at the list price of $65,000. We will model this first, then show what happens at a lower offer.
Rehab budget: Scouq estimates rehab at $28,000 based on the property's condition flags (deferred maintenance, age, and comparable rehab costs in the area). This is a rough estimate. You will need a contractor walkthrough to confirm. For now, leave it at $28,000.
ARV (After Repair Value): Scouq pulls comparable sales from the assessor and recorder feeds. The three most recent comps for renovated 3/1 SFRs in this ZIP are $118,000, $124,000, and $121,000. Scouq sets ARV at $121,000. That feels right.
Monthly rent: Scouq pulls rental comps from the HUD Fair Market Rent data and cross-references with vacancy rates. It estimates $925/month for this unit type and submarket. Adjust to your own research.
Refinance LTV: Default is 75% (DSCR loan). You can adjust to 70% or 80% depending on your lender.
Interest rate: Pre-populated with the current market rate. Adjust to your lender quote.
Step 5: Read the output (2 minutes)
With the inputs above, Scouq calculates:
All-in cost: $65,000 purchase + $28,000 rehab + $4,500 estimated closing costs = $97,500
ARV: $121,000
Refinance loan at 75% LTV: $90,750
Cash recovered at refi: $90,750 - $97,500 = -$6,750 (negative: you would need to leave $6,750 in the deal)
Monthly cash flow: $925 rent - $580 PITI (estimated at current rate) - $92 property management (10%) - $93 vacancy reserve (10%) - $46 capex reserve (5%) = $114/month
Cash-on-cash return on remaining equity: $114 x 12 / $6,750 = 20.3%
The deal works, but only if you can get close to full equity recovery at refi. At a $65,000 purchase, you are leaving $6,750 in the deal. That is acceptable. At a $75,000 purchase, you would be leaving $16,750 in, which changes the return profile significantly.
Now try the offer at $55,000. At that price: all-in cost drops to $87,500, refinance loan covers $90,750, and you actually pull $3,250 out at refi. Infinite returns on the deployed equity. That is the BRRRR at its best.
What Scouq does not do
Scouq does not replace your due diligence. It does not give you a contractor's scope of work. It does not tell you whether the roof has five years left or whether there is mold in the crawl space. It does not guarantee the ARV. The comps are a starting point; you need to walk comparables and talk to local agents to confirm.
What it does is compress the first 10 minutes of underwriting from an hour to 10 minutes. If you are screening 50 leads a week, that is the difference between a part-time research project and a real workflow.
Save the deal to your watchlist with a note on your target offer price, and move on to the next one.