How to Budget a House Flip in a Spreadsheet (Before You Buy)

The money in a flip is made on the buy — and you only know if the buy works once the whole budget is on one screen. A free house-flip budget spreadsheet does exactly that: purchase, rehab, holding, and selling costs against your after-repair value (ARV), with the profit calculated for you.

The five cost buckets to model

1. Purchase — price, closing costs, and any acquisition fees.
2. Rehab — itemized, room by room. This is where optimism kills deals; budget line items, not a lump sum.
3. Holding — loan interest, taxes, insurance, and utilities for every month you own it. Double your expected timeline here.
4. Selling — agent commission, closing costs, and staging.
5. ARV — your realistic resale price, backed by comparable sales.

Profit = ARV − (purchase + rehab + holding + selling). If that number isn’t comfortably positive with a contingency, the deal isn’t there.

The mistakes the spreadsheet catches

• Underbudgeting rehab. Itemizing forces honesty a lump sum hides.
• Forgetting holding costs. Every extra month eats profit silently — the sheet makes it visible.
• Skipping a contingency. Add a 10–15% rehab buffer line. The flips that go wrong are the ones with no margin.

Run the deal before you offer

Fill the template with conservative numbers and decent comps. If the margin survives a doubled timeline and a 15% rehab overrun, you have a deal. If it only works in the best case, walk.

These templates are operational tools, not financial or investment advice. Verify costs and comparable sales independently.