How much do house flippers actually make per flip?

ATTOM put the median gross profit on a US flip at $65,981 in 2025, a 25.5% gross ROI. But gross profit is measured before rehab, financing, holding costs, and realtor commissions. Once you subtract those, the take-home on a typical single-family flip is usually less than half the gross figure, and in 2025 a lot of flips landed at or below breakeven.

What is the 70% rule in house flipping?

The 70% rule says you should pay no more than 70% of a property's after-repair value minus the rehab cost. If ARV is $300K and rehab is $50K, your maximum offer is $160K. In competitive markets it drifts to a 75% or 80% rule, and that is exactly when margin starts disappearing. The buffer is the only thing that survives the cost stack.

What costs eat into house flipping profit?

Six line items do most of the damage: purchase costs of $3K to $5K, hard money interest at roughly 10 to 12 percent APR, hard money points of 2 to 3 percent upfront, rehab overruns that routinely run 10 to 20 percent over budget, holding costs of $1.5K to $3K, and sale costs of about 8 percent of the resale price once you add commission and closing.

Is house flipping still profitable in 2026?

It is harder than it has been in nearly two decades. ATTOM recorded a 25.5% median gross ROI for 2025, the lowest since 2008, driven by high purchase prices, elevated financing costs, and slow resale. Operators with off-market acquisition and their own crews still make money. Anyone buying retail off the MLS and hiring out the rehab is fighting a very thin margin.

How Much You Actually Make Flipping a House

House flippers make money by buying a property below market, fixing it up, and selling it above market. The gross profit on a typical flip is the after-repair value (ARV) minus the purchase price minus rehab costs. The net profit is that gross minus financing, holding costs, transaction costs, and realtor fees. The gap between gross and net is where the TV shows lie.

The way I think about flipping is that it's a 70% rule plus reality. The 70% rule says you should pay no more than 70% of ARV minus rehab costs. So if ARV is $300K and rehab is $50K, the maximum offer is $160K. That's the math the textbooks teach. In practice, in any halfway-competitive market, you can't buy at that price, and the 70% rule turns into the 75% rule or the 80% rule. As soon as it does, the margin starts disappearing.

$65,981

Median gross flip profit, ATTOM 2025

25.5%

Median gross ROI in 2025, lowest since 2008

32.1%

Median gross ROI the prior year

4-6 mo

Typical hold time, contract to close

The Headline Numbers, and Why They Flatter

ATTOM Data, which tracks property records nationally, reported a median gross flip profit of $65,981 for 2025 on a 25.5% gross return on investment. That's the lowest flipping margin since 2008, down from 32.1% the year before. Purchase prices went up, resale did not keep pace, and the spread got squeezed.

Even that understates the pain, because “gross profit” in those reports is just the spread between purchase price and resale price. Before rehab. Before financing. Before holding costs. Before the roughly 8% that leaves at closing. Net profit on the same deals routinely lands at less than half the headline, and at a 25.5% gross margin, a lot of 2025 flips netted close to zero.

A more honest framework: net profit on a single-family flip in a median US market runs $20K-$40K per deal in a good market, with hold times of four to six months. A flipper running three to four deals a year clears maybe $80K-$160K net, before income taxes. That's a real income for real work. It is nothing like the gross numbers in the press releases.

The Line Items That Eat Margin

Let's walk through a representative deal. Buy at $180K, ARV is $260K, rehab budget is $40K. The naive math says $40K profit. The reality:

Purchase costs: $3K-$5K (title, inspection, transfer tax).
Hard money loan interest: 10-12% APR on borrowed capital. On $180K over 5 months, that's $7,500-$9K.
Hard money points: 2-3% upfront. Another $4K-$6K.
Rehab overruns: Almost always 10-20% over budget. Add $5K-$8K.
Holding costs during rehab: Property tax, utilities, insurance, HOA. $1.5K-$3K.
Sale costs: Realtor commission (6%), closing costs (2%). On a $260K sale, that's roughly $20K.

Total costs above and beyond the rehab budget: roughly $45K-$50K. So the “$40K profit” turns into a $0K to -$5K outcome on a deal that looked good on paper. This is why the 70% rule matters. The buffer is the only thing that survives the cost stack.

Where the Real Money Is Made

A few patterns separate the flippers who clear $100K+ per deal from the ones earning $25K:

Buying significantly below market. Off-market deals (probate, divorce, pre-foreclosure, tired landlord) routinely come in 15-25% below MLS comps. That margin is the actual edge. Flippers competing for MLS listings against other flippers don't have it.
Doing meaningful structural work. Cosmetic flips (paint, floors, fixtures) compete with everyone. Adding a bedroom, finishing a basement, or doing a major addition can move ARV by $50K+ on a $300K property. The skills are higher and the timelines are longer, but the margins per deal are 2-3x.
Volume. A flipper running 12+ deals a year can have one or two losers absorbed by the winners. A flipper running 2 deals a year is one bad project from a losing year.
Owning the rehab. Self-managing GC work or having an in-house crew saves the 15-25% markup that an outside GC charges. That's another $5K-$10K per deal.

The Markets That Currently Work and Don't

Flipping margins are tied to the price-velocity gap: how much you can move a property up in resale price relative to how long the rehab takes. Markets where flips currently work are typically:

Mid-tier metros with strong job growth and housing supply lag (Charlotte, Raleigh, Phoenix, Tampa).
Older urban neighborhoods undergoing gentrification, where dated houses sit next to renovated comparables.
Areas with limited new construction supply, where ARV is set by recent renovated comps rather than new builds.

Markets where flipping is hard:

Coastal California, NYC, and other markets where entry prices have priced out small operators.
Cities with abundant new construction, where buyers compare your renovation to a brand-new build of similar price.
Markets with falling prices, where holding through a 6-month flip means selling into a softer comp set than you bought into.

The Real Job

The romantic version is “buy ugly houses, fix them up, sell them.” The actual day-to-day is closer to project management on a tight timeline with thin margins. You're managing contractors who don't show up, materials that don't arrive, permits that take longer than expected, and inspectors who fail you over hairline cracks. The work that produces the profit is mostly negotiation, scheduling, and damage control.

Most successful flippers I've known are construction-savvy people who treat it as a small business with multiple deals running in parallel. The ones who treat it as passive investing or part-time work either don't make money or get out within a year or two.

Takeaway

ATTOM's 2025 numbers put median gross flip profit at $65,981 on a 25.5% gross ROI, the worst margin since 2008. Net profit is what survives the cost stack, and it is usually less than half of gross. Successful operators buy below market off the MLS, run enough volume to absorb a loser, and either self-manage rehab or keep a captive crew. The TV version is nothing like the median outcome.

The Take

Flipping is real income for people with construction experience, capital access, and the discipline to walk away from deals that don't pencil. It's a dangerous side hustle for people who don't. The 70% rule isn't a guideline; it's the buffer that keeps you solvent when things go wrong, and things go wrong on roughly half of every flip I've ever heard about. Treat it as a small business, run the math honestly, and the income is genuine. Treat it as a get-rich shortcut, and the cost stack will eat you.