The REI Vault Pro Wholesale Calculator: Find Your MAO, Assignment Fee, and Deal Viability in One Tool

Wholesale real estate investing is a volume business. You evaluate dozens of properties for every one you put under contract, and every minute you spend on a deal that will never pencil is a minute you did not spend on one that will. Speed of analysis — combined with discipline on the numbers — is the wholesaler's primary competitive advantage.

The REI Vault Pro Wholesale Calculator consolidates the three calculations every wholesaler needs into a single focused tool: Maximum Allowable Offer, Assignment Fee, and 70% Rule analysis.

The Core Math of Wholesaling

Wholesaling has straightforward economics. You acquire a contract to purchase a distressed property at a price low enough that another buyer — typically a fix-and-flip investor or BRRRR buyer — will pay you a premium over your contract price to take the deal. Your profit is the spread between what you contracted to pay and what your end buyer pays: the assignment fee.

To make that spread work, you need to know three numbers before you make an offer: the ARV (what the property will be worth after repairs), the estimated repair costs, and the end buyer's maximum offer (which your MAO must stay below).

MAO: Your Most Important Number

The Maximum Allowable Offer is the highest price you can contract the property at and still assign it at a profit. The Wholesale Calculator calculates it using the professional MAO formula:

MAO = (ARV × Target Percentage) − Estimated Repair Costs − Your Assignment Fee − Holding Costs − Closing Costs − Your Desired Profit

The calculator accepts each of these as a separate input, so you can see exactly where each dollar goes and adjust any variable to see the impact on your MAO.

ARV — After Repair Value

What the property will sell for in fully renovated condition. Pull sold comps within 0.5 miles, same bed/bath, similar square footage, sold within the last 6 months in updated condition. Use the conservative end of the comp range — not the highest comparable sale.

Estimated Repair Costs

Your rough scope of the renovation required to bring the property to retail-ready condition. As a wholesaler, you are not the one executing the rehab — but your end buyer is, and your numbers need to be credible to them. A wildly underestimated repair budget destroys your ability to close with a buyer who runs their own numbers.

ARV Margin %

This is your target percentage — typically 70% of ARV for standard wholesale deals. At 70%, the end buyer retains 30% of ARV as profit margin and reserves for rehab, holding costs, and selling costs. In softer markets or for higher-risk properties, use 65%. In fast-moving markets with very clean comps, some wholesalers work at 72–75% — but be careful: a tighter margin for your buyer means fewer buyers will act on the deal.

The 70% Rule: Quick Pass/Fail Screen

Before running the full MAO calculation, the Wholesale Calculator applies the 70% rule as an instant screen:

70% Rule MAO = (ARV × 0.70) − Repair Costs

If the asking price is above this number, the deal fails the 70% rule and the conversation with the seller needs to close that gap before the analysis goes further. The 70% rule is not the final answer — your full MAO calculation is — but it is a fast signal that tells you whether a deal is in the right zip code before you invest more time.

Assignment Fee Calculator

Once you have your contract price (which should be at or below your MAO), the Assignment Fee Calculator tells you exactly what you earn from the deal.

Inputs: Your Contract Price (MAO), End Buyer Price, Marketing and Finding Fees

Outputs: Gross Assignment Fee, Net Assignment Fee (after marketing costs), Fee as a Percentage of the End Buyer's Price

The percentage output is valuable context: if your assignment fee is 8% of the end buyer's purchase price, that is a normal, sustainable level. If it is 15–20%, the end buyer's numbers are very tight and any miscalculation on repairs puts the deal at risk. Understanding the fee as a percentage of the buyer's position helps you anticipate how the deal will be received.

Building a Defensible ARV

The single most important input in any wholesale analysis is the ARV — and it is the input most often inflated, either from optimism or pressure to make the numbers work. A defensible ARV requires:

At minimum three sold comparable properties within 0.5 miles. Sales within the last 6 months (3 months in fast-moving markets). Similar bed/bath count and square footage (within 15–20%). Properties sold in renovated, move-in ready condition — not as-is sales or distressed comparables. If your comps are thin (fewer than three quality comps within those parameters), widen the search radius cautiously and apply a discount to account for the less certain value.

Speed, Discipline, and Deal Volume

The investors who build profitable wholesale businesses combine speed with discipline. Speed means running your analysis quickly enough to respond to leads before they go cold. Discipline means never stretching your ARV, never underestimating repairs, and never paying above your MAO no matter how much you want the deal.

The Wholesale Calculator gives you speed — a complete MAO and assignment fee analysis in under two minutes. The discipline is yours to provide.

Open the Wholesale Calculator and run it on your current pipeline of leads. Available to Core and Pro members. Start your 7-day free trial today.