Fliporithm

What it is

The Fliporithm — say it “flipper rhythm” — is my quick scope of work calculator. It’s built on banks: the quick six, the auto adds, replacements, and extras. You answer a handful of questions about the house and it spits out a ballpark budget you can run through the Flippin’ Calculator to see if a deal is even a deal.

This is not the in-depth version. The jobs menu is the in-depth version, the one you’ll need to actually fulfill a scope of work and manage projects. Fliporithm is the thing I reach for when a wholesaler sends me an address and I need to know if it’s worth a walkthrough.

Why it matters

Here’s the honest thing: these prices aren’t perfect. I’ll tell you that straight up. They get me in the ballpark. A price is not real until I have a bid in front of me that says it’s that price.

So why use a calculator at all? Because I’m chunking jobs together. I might have 10 jobs I chunk together and give to a contractor for a bid. All those jobs together, say $12,000 according to my numbers. Contractor comes back and says, well, it’s going to be $13,000. Oh gosh, man. Am I missing something here? I don’t want to underpay you for sure, but what am I missing? That’s how I use this thing. I don’t use it to be exactly right. I use it to know when someone’s numbers are off.

Everything breaks down to man hours. Every job is man days times a rate, plus material, plus a reasonable markup. Prices don’t really change from one region to the next at the hourly level, because people make about the same amount of money. What changes is supply and demand. It is much more expensive here where I’m at to do stucco than it is in Florida, because there are a lot more people that do it there and the hourly rate has gone down. The math is still the same everywhere.

How it shows up

Walk a property. Open Fliporithm. Pick cosmetic, renovation, or gut. Answer quick six on the big systems — hvac, electrical, plumbing, structural, roofing, siding. Flag the replacements: kitchen, bath, windows, whatever the house needs. Add any extras specific to this one (a pool, a weird pergola, whatever). The tool hands back a renovation price.

That goes straight into the Flippin’ Calculator, which reverse-engineers the max allowable offer from the ARV minus the rehab minus holding, closing, and a rate of return. Together they give you “what’s this house worth to me” in the time it takes to walk through.

One habit I’ll flag: I always tend to add budget as opposed to take it away. I can always come down and add a little contingency if I end up being able to save some and reuse it — we just save budget.

Related

jobs menu, quick six, auto adds, scope of work, max allowable offer, big three, fear tax