ARV (After Repair Value) is the single number that separates wholesalers who make money from ones who chase phantom deals. Get ARV wrong and every downstream decision is wrong — your offer to the seller, your sale price to the buyer, and your assignment fee. Here's how to calculate it the way experienced investors do.
What is ARV?
ARV is what a property will sell for, fully renovated, to a retail buyer in the current market. It's a projection, not a fact — you're estimating what the house will be worth after repairs that haven't happened yet.
MAO = (ARV × 0.70) − Repairs − Assignment Fee
Every error in ARV compounds. A $10K mistake in ARV becomes a $7K hit to your Maximum Allowable Offer — and usually your paycheck.
Finding comps
Comps are comparable sold properties you'll use to estimate ARV. Good comps share four traits with the subject property:
- Within 0.5 miles, same school district and neighborhood.
- Sold within the last 90 days (6 months max in slow markets).
- Same property type — single-family, townhouse, and condo never mix.
- Within 20% of the square footage and same bed/bath count.
Pull 3–5 comps that meet those criteria. If you can't find them, expand carefully — first time, then radius, then bed/bath. Never use a comp that's still active or pending; only sold prices are reliable. Zillow and Redfin are fine for browsing, but use MLS or a paid comp service for the actual numbers.
Making adjustments
Comps are rarely identical to your subject. Adjust for each meaningful difference:
- Size: Subtract or add ~$50–$100 per square foot of difference (market-dependent).
- Bedrooms/bathrooms: Add or subtract $5,000–$15,000 per extra.
- Condition: If a comp is renovated to retail and your ARV assumes the same, no adjustment; otherwise subtract the uplift.
- Features: Garage, pool, finished basement — each worth $10,000–$40,000 depending on market.
Do this for every comp. Take the adjusted average— that's your ARV. Don't rely on a single comp; averages smooth out anomalies.
Worked example
Say your subject is a 1,500 sq ft 3/2 in Atlanta. You pull three comps:
- Comp A:1,450 sq ft, 3/2, renovated — sold $285,000. +$3,500 size adjustment → $288,500.
- Comp B:1,600 sq ft, 3/2, renovated — sold $310,000. −$7,000 size → $303,000.
- Comp C:1,500 sq ft, 4/2, renovated — sold $315,000. −$10,000 for extra bed → $305,000.
Adjusted average: ($288,500 + $303,000 + $305,000) ÷ 3 = $298,833 ARV — round down to $295,000 to stay conservative.
Common mistakes
- Using Zestimates as ARV (not reliable for investment math).
- Mixing active or pending listings with sold comps.
- Cherry-picking only the highest 3 comps — that's wish-price, not ARV.
- Ignoring condition differences between the comp and your subject.
Skip the math
Want the math done for you? Use our free ARV calculator to run this in under a minute. And for the full wholesaling playbook — MAO, contracts, disposition — see our complete guide.