Calculator
Is a 12-month term long enough for your deal?
Most hard money loans run 12 months. Whether that is enough depends on how fast homes actually sell where you are buying - here is that number for 2,241 counties, and what happens to your term if you get it wrong.
A flip has three phases, not one: renovation, then time on market, then the buyer's closing. Most people budget for the first and are surprised by the other two.
We checked this against real sale data rather than assuming, and the answer is more useful than the usual warning. Across the 120 largest US counties the market phase runs a median of 2.7 months — which leaves roughly 9.3 months of renovation allowance inside a standard 12-month term. Market time on its own rarely breaks the term.
Search the county you are actually buying in. This tells you how much renovation that market can absorb before a 12-month term breaks, and what the waiting costs while it does.
Why the renovation is not what decides your term
The spread between markets is enormous
Median days on market across counties in May 2026 ranged from single digits to well over six months. Underwriting a flip on a national average is close to meaningless.
| Fastest markets | Days | Slowest markets | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pierce County, NE | 3 | Okfuskee County, OK | 292 |
| Morgan County, IL | 4 | Jackson County, TX | 227 |
| Sangamon County, IL | 6 | Perry County, IN | 211 |
| Kent County, MI | 6 | Monroe County, WV | 208 |
| Cumberland County, PA | 6 | Clay County, IL | 200 |
The largest markets by sales volume
| County | Median days on market | Homes sold | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maricopa County, AZ | 57 days | 4,907 | $510,000 |
| Harris County, TX | 41 days | 3,714 | $335,000 |
| Los Angeles County, CA | 38 days | 3,090 | $1,040,000 |
| Cook County, IL | 46 days | 2,336 | $405,000 |
| Clark County, NV | 54 days | 2,037 | $495,990 |
| Tarrant County, TX | 38 days | 1,954 | $355,500 |
| Bexar County, TX | 66 days | 1,844 | $299,000 |
| Riverside County, CA | 48 days | 1,841 | $636,000 |
| Dallas County, TX | 36 days | 1,564 | $392,335 |
| King County, WA | 8 days | 1,556 | $1,053,000 |
| Collin County, TX | 48 days | 1,534 | $483,044 |
| Hillsborough County, FL | 41 days | 1,458 | $425,000 |
How to use it
- Look up the county the property is actually in, not the metro name.
- Add your honest renovation estimate. Then add the closing window — the tool does this for you.
- If the total exceeds your loan term, you are already underwriting to an extension fee. Fix that before you borrow, not after.
- Feed the total into the true-cost calculator as your hold period, and look at what it does to the break-even resale price.
Methodology
- Source: Redfin Data Center, free bulk county data. Redfin publishes this and asks for attribution, which this page gives.
- Single-family residential only. Counties with fewer than 15 sales in the month are excluded — a median over three sales is noise.
- Latest period: May 2026. Refreshed monthly, on Redfin's third-Friday cadence.
- 2,241 counties covered. Nothing you enter is transmitted anywhere.
Questions people actually ask
What is a fix n flip loan?
A hard money loan structured for a buy-renovate-sell project: a purchase piece funded at closing, a rehab piece held back and released against completed work, interest-only payments, and a 12-month term timed to your renovation and resale.
What is the best loan for a fix and flip?
Whichever one has the lowest all-in cost for the months you will actually hold it, given the leverage you need. That is genuinely the answer, and it is not the same lender for every deal.
The structural things that decide it: whether interest accrues on the drawn balance or the full facility, whether there is a minimum-interest period, how many draws and at what fee, and what the extension costs. A lender quoting 11.5% on drawn balance with no minimum interest routinely beats one quoting 9.99% on the full facility with six months guaranteed.
Are fix and flip loans worth it?
They are worth it when the leverage lets you run more deals than your cash would, and the spread survives the financing cost with room left for the rehab running over. They are not worth it when the financing cost consumes a spread that was thin to begin with - which is most deals bought at retail. The financing is rarely what kills a flip; the purchase price usually already did.
How much money do I need for a fix and flip?
Plan on the down payment (10%-20% of purchase), plus points and flat fees, plus buy-side closing costs, plus the first rehab draw funded out of pocket, plus carrying costs for the whole hold, plus a genuine contingency. On a $250,000 purchase with $50,000 of rehab that is commonly $60,000-$80,000 of real cash, not the $25,000 the down payment alone implies.