How we build the number, line by line.

ARV is not what your house is worth today. It's what the house sells for AFTER a standard investor-grade renovation — updated kitchen, new flooring, paint, modern systems. This is the number a flipper sells to a retail buyer, and it's the ceiling the buyer works backward from.

We start with a licensed AVM (Automated Valuation Model) — currently RentCast. Then we reconcile it against actual closed sales in your ZIP in the last 90 days, filtered to renovated comps with similar beds, baths, and square footage. If the AVM is off from the comps, we use the reconciled number.

The condition multiplier sets the range of buyers willing to underwrite. A house in excellent condition has the widest buyer pool (flippers, landlords, retail cash buyers, even some iBuyers). A house in uninhabitable condition has the narrowest (experienced rehabbers who underwrite from lot value).

The five tiers (excellent / good / fair / poor / uninhabitable) map to multipliers roughly between 0.82 and 0.38. The multiplier for each tier is calibrated from closings our buyer network actually does in the field; it's not a formula we invented.

Not every ZIP in a metro moves the same. The market adjustment compares your ZIP's 90-day rolling median sale price against your metro median. If your ZIP has been selling above metro, the adjustment is positive; below, negative.

The adjustment is usually small — between ±5%. It reflects local demand, not property-specific value. If your house is in a ZIP that's been rising faster than the metro, the buyer should share that upside with you, and the adjustment is how.

Repair reserve is the dollar amount the buyer expects to spend rehabbing the house after they buy it. On the offer page, we show a pre-walkthrough estimate based on your condition answers. On walkthrough, the buyer confirms the actual scope.

If the scope comes in LOWER than our estimate, the offer goes UP, not down. That rule is written into every purchase contract our buyers sign. The only way the number moves the other direction is if you disclosed nothing and the walkthrough finds major undisclosed damage (foundation failure, undisclosed fire, hidden mold).

The buyer-margin band (currently 90–96%) reflects the diversity of buyers in our nationwide network. The LOW end is a buy-and-hold investor with patient capital. The HIGH end is an active flipper with a 6-month exit timeline and a tighter internal hurdle rate.

When you accept an offer, the specific buyer who underwrites determines where in the band your final number lands. We disclose which buyer is assigned to your deal before the walkthrough, not after. The band is shown because the range is real — not because we're hiding a fixed multiplier behind a spread.