How Much Will an Investor Really Pay for Your House

The Real Math Behind an Investor's Number

Most cash investors do not pick a number out of thin air. They run one formula: after-repair value times 0.70, minus repair costs. Real estate investors call it the 70% rule, and it caps what an investor will pay so the deal still works once repairs, financing costs, and profit margin get subtracted.

$100,000 after-repair value. $20,000 in needed repairs. $50,000 maximum offer. That's the textbook version of the formula, and it's the same math nearly every cash investor runs before they call you back with a number.

Scale it to a real house. A $300,000 after-repair-value home needing $30,000 in repairs caps a standard 70%-rule investor's offer at $180,000: $300,000 times 0.70 is $210,000, minus $30,000 in repairs. The remaining 30% of after-repair value pays for the investor's hard money loan interest, commissions, insurance, title costs, and profit margin, typically 12% to 15% on the deal. None of that is padding. It's the actual cost structure behind the number.

Why the Gap Exists, and Where Cash Flow Deals Fits

That 30% gap is not a trick. It exists because a cash investor takes on real costs a retail buyer never sees: financing the purchase before a resale happens, insurance and taxes while the home sits, and a profit margin that has to clear before the deal is worth doing. A seller who needs speed above everything else often accepts that trade. A seller who wants to know if there's a higher, honest number owes it to themselves to ask before signing anything.

Cash Flow Deals is a Florida real estate investor that locks in a net price for a seller's house before repairs are scoped, using a novation-based, flat-fee process arranged through its licensed FL brokerage partner, Silver Door Realty — not a traditional listing, and not a brokerage itself.

Here's the order of operations Cash Flow Deals runs, built to land above the 70%-rule number instead of matching it:

1. Cash Flow Deals reviews the real condition of the house first, before any repair line item gets priced against the seller.

2. Cash Flow Deals locks a net price using its novation-based, flat-fee process, arranged through Silver Door Realty, its licensed FL brokerage partner.

3. Cash Flow Deals connects the house to a real end buyer, FHA, conventional, VA, or DSCR, and closes in as little as 10 business days.

On that same $300,000 after-repair-value house needing $30,000 in repairs, the $180,000 a standard 70%-rule investor offers is the number to beat, not the number to accept. A locked net price arranged through Cash Flow Deals starts from a different question: what can this house actually sell for to a real buyer, not what does the discount formula allow.

What This Means Before You Sign Anything

Compare net numbers, not sticker prices. A traditional listing at full market value looks bigger on paper, but 5% to 6% in agent commission plus 1% to 3% in seller closing costs comes off the top before a seller sees a dollar. Add seller concessions, which typically run 0% to 2%, and the combined reduction on a traditional sale is commonly 8% to 10% of the total sale price.

A cash investor's 70%-rule number already has the discount built in, so there's no commission subtracted afterward, but there's also no room to negotiate once the repair estimate is set. The two paths front-load their costs differently. One shows a full price and subtracts fees later. The other shows a discounted price with nothing subtracted after.

The only way to know which number is actually higher for a specific house is to get a real net figure from more than one source before signing anything. A seller who only sees one offer has no comparison to make, and the formula behind that one offer is rarely explained unless someone asks.