Exit Strategies: Choosing the Right One for Every Deal

Six strategies handle virtually every investment property you'll encounter. Each one fits different deals, different capital situations, and different goals. Knowing all six means you never walk away from a good property just because your go-to strategy doesn't fit.

Wholesale. Assign the contract to a cash buyer for a fee. Zero capital required. Fastest turnaround. Best for deals where the spread is thin or the rehab is beyond your current capacity. Typical profit: $5,000-25,000 per deal.

Flip. Buy, renovate, sell at retail. Requires capital or financing for the purchase and rehab. Best for properties in strong retail markets with clear ARV support. Timeline is four to nine months. Typical profit: $30,000-80,000 per deal, but your money is tied up until the sale.

BRRRR. Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Same as a flip through the renovation phase, but you rent the property and refinance to pull out your capital instead of selling. Best for building a rental portfolio without parking all your cash in one property. Requires a property that cash flows after the refinance.

Rental hold. Buy and hold for cash flow and appreciation. The simplest long-term strategy. Works when the purchase price allows positive cash flow from day one. Best for properties that don't need heavy renovation.

Owner financing. Sell the property to a buyer using seller-provided financing. You collect a down payment plus monthly payments with interest. Creates long-term income and often sells at a premium because you're offering terms that banks won't. Best for properties in markets with limited buyer financing options.

Subject-to. Take over the seller's existing mortgage payments without formally assuming the loan. No new financing needed. Works when the seller's existing loan terms are favorable and they need relief from the payments. Higher complexity, higher reward.

FlipMantis underwriting runs the numbers for all six so you can see which one produces the best return on your capital and time.

The property tells you what to do with it if you listen to the data instead of forcing your preferred strategy.

A 3/2 ranch in a neighborhood where retail sales are strong and the ARV is well-supported by recent comps? Flip it. The demand is there, the timeline is predictable, and you'll get full market value on the sale. Trying to BRRRR this one makes less sense because the purchase price in a strong retail market is too high for the rental math to work.

A duplex in a blue-collar area where rents are $900 per side and you can buy it for $120,000? BRRRR. The rental income supports the mortgage after refinance, and retail buyers for duplexes are limited, so the flip upside is capped. This property builds wealth over time rather than generating a one-time check.

A single-wide mobile home on two acres in a rural county? Owner finance it. Retail buyers in this price range struggle to get conventional loans. You sell on terms, collect a $5,000-10,000 down payment, and create a note at 9-11% interest. The monthly cash flow beats what you'd net from a straight sale.

A property where the seller owes $180,000 on a 3.2% FHA loan and the house is worth $220,000? Subject-to. That interest rate is worth more than the equity. Take over the payments, rent the property, and cash flow on a rate you couldn't get from any lender right now.

FlipMantis intelligence pulls market data for the property's ZIP code: median days on market, price trends, rental rates, and buyer demand. When the market is hot and inventory is low, flips sell fast. When rates are high and buyer demand is soft, rentals and owner financing perform better. The data removes the guesswork.

Don't pick a strategy and then look for properties that fit. Find properties and let the numbers pick the strategy.

Pull any property address into FlipMantis and open the underwriting tool. Enter the purchase price, estimated repairs, and the numbers you know about the market. The system runs three analyses simultaneously: wholesale assignment, fix-and-flip, and BRRRR.

The wholesale scenario shows your maximum allowable offer at various assignment fee levels. At a $10,000 fee, your MAO is one number. At $20,000, it's lower. You can see instantly whether the deal has enough spread to wholesale.

The flip scenario models your total investment including purchase, rehab, holding costs, and selling costs. It projects your net profit and return on investment based on the ARV and your estimated timeline. Change the rehab budget or the hold time and watch the profit adjust in real time. A six-month flip with $40,000 in rehab might net $45,000. Add two months of delays and that drops to $38,000 because holding costs don't stop.

The BRRRR scenario goes further. It models the rental income, estimates the refinance loan amount at 75% of ARV, and tells you how much cash you leave in the deal after refinancing. It calculates your cash-on-cash return based on the capital you have tied up. A deal where you recover 100% of your investment at refinance has an infinite cash-on-cash return.

Switch to rental hold and the tool projects five-year cash flow including rent increases, expense growth, and principal paydown. Some properties look mediocre in year one but compound into strong performers by year three as rents rise and the mortgage balance drops.

The comparison view puts all strategies on one screen. Wholesale: $12,000 today. Flip: $45,000 in six months. BRRRR: $350 per month forever with your capital returned. Each one is a valid choice. The right answer depends on whether you need cash now, profit soon, or wealth over time.

Save the analysis to the deal record so you can revisit it during negotiations. If the seller counters higher than your flip MAO, check if the BRRRR numbers still work at the higher price. Flexibility wins deals.

Your flip hits a foundation issue that adds $25,000 to the rehab budget. The ARV hasn't changed but your profit just got cut in half. This is where investors who know only one strategy take a loss, and investors who know all six find a different path.

Run the updated numbers. Maybe the flip profit dropped from $45,000 to $20,000. Is that still worth six months of your time? If not, check the BRRRR scenario. At the higher total investment, does the property still cash flow after refinance? If the rental income covers the mortgage and expenses with room to spare, hold it instead of selling.

Or maybe you got a property under contract planning to wholesale it, but your buyers aren't biting. The spread looked good on paper but the neighborhood isn't where your cash buyers want to be. Instead of letting the contract expire, explore owner financing it to a retail buyer who can't qualify for traditional lending. Your profit comes over time instead of at closing, but profit over time beats no profit at all.

FlipMantis pipeline supports mid-deal strategy changes. Move the deal from your wholesale pipeline to your rental pipeline or your rehab pipeline with one click. The property data, contacts, and documents follow the deal. The underwriting updates to reflect the new exit strategy. Your activity timeline records the pivot so you have a clear history of what happened and why.

The best investors don't force deals into strategies. They adapt. A property that fails as a flip might be the best rental you acquire all year. The numbers tell the story. Your job is to listen when they change.