Local market • Chicago, IL
House Flipping Calculator for Chicago, IL
Large, liquid market with wide neighborhood variation — bungalow and two-flat conversions are staples, but vet blocks and permitting carefully.
Worked example: the 70% rule in Chicago
With a median home price around $360,000 in Chicago, a flipper using a 70% of ARV rule would target a maximum offer near $208,800 on a property worth $360,000 after repairs with roughly $43,200 of rehab.
| After-repair value (ARV) | $360,000 |
| Estimated rehab (≈12% of ARV) | $43,200 |
| 70% of ARV | $252,000 |
| Maximum allowable offer (MAO) | $208,800 |
These are illustrative figures. Run the actual numbers — comps, true rehab scope, holding costs, financing — in the FlipOS deal analyzer for an accurate MAO.
A more accurate MAO: work backward from your costs
The percentage rule is just a shortcut for the real formula — subtract every cost and your target profit from the ARV:
MAO = ARV − rehab − closing − holding − selling − target profit
| After-repair value (ARV) | $360,000 |
| Rehab (≈12% of ARV) | −$43,200 |
| Buy / closing costs (≈2%) | −$7,200 |
| Holding costs (≈3%) | −$10,800 |
| Selling costs (≈6.5%) | −$23,400 |
| Target profit (≈19% of ARV) | −$66,600 |
| Maximum allowable offer (MAO) | $208,800 |
Notice this lands on the same $208,800 as the 70% rule above — the rule just bakes these costs into one number. The trade-off it hides: a higher ARV percentage means a thinner profit margin (19% here), which is exactly why standard markets can hold the line at 70%. Always confirm rehab, holding, and selling costs for the specific deal.
What flippers should know about Chicago
Large, liquid market with wide neighborhood variation — bungalow and two-flat conversions are staples, but vet blocks and permitting carefully. As with any market, the headline median price masks wide variation block-to-block. Pull comps inside a one-mile radius (or tighter in urban submarkets), and confirm rehab costs with at least two local contractors before committing.
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