How to read your offer number
Work backward from your buyer's resale plan. That future sale has to cover the property, the repairs, the transaction costs, your buyer's margin, and your fee. What's left over is the maximum allowable offer, or MAO.
Start with the discount method
The formula here is ARV × selected percentage − repairs − assignment fee. ARV is the after-repair value. The percentage you pick is a catch-all for the costs and profit the shortcut never lists out. The 70% setting is an example, and the right number depends on who's buying in your market, so ask two or three active buyers what they work to and use that.
Check your buyer's real costs
Back your ARV with completed comparable sales. Then confirm the repair scope, the financing, how long the buyer holds, the buying and selling expenses, and the margin they need to say yes. Watch for double-counting: if a cost is already baked into the discount percentage, don't deduct it a second time.
The buyer-profit figure comes straight from the resale and expense numbers you typed in. It isn't your fee, and it isn't money in anyone's pocket yet. A bigger offer ceiling doesn't make a deal better, and a fee on your screen isn't a fee a buyer has agreed to pay. Run the numbers past your best buyer while the offer is still a draft.
Get the paperwork right
Contract rights, assignment restrictions, disclosures, licensing, and marketing rules vary by state, so have counsel look at yours. This tool prices a deal; it can't give you the right to market or assign a contract. The flip calculator shows the same property from your buyer's side, so try it with a lower sale price or a longer hold.
Get those numbers honest and you'll be the wholesaler your buyers pick up the phone for.