MAO Calculator (70% Rule)
Calculate your Maximum Allowable Offer from ARV, repair costs, and your target wholesale fee. Free, no signup.
Formula: MAO = (ARV × rule %) − repairs − your wholesale fee. Adjust the rule percentage for your market and buyer pool.
Questions, answered.
The 70% rule says your maximum offer should be no more than 70% of the ARV, minus repair costs: MAO = (ARV x 0.70) - Repairs. It leaves room for closing costs, holding costs, and profit for whoever buys the contract.
70% is a common default, not a law. Competitive, high-ARV markets often push toward 75-80%; riskier or lower-ARV deals often need 60-65% to leave enough margin. Adjust the slider to match your market and buyer pool.
Yes, in this calculator. Enter your target assignment fee and it is subtracted after the repair-adjusted ARV, so the number you get is what you can actually offer the seller.
That is a signal the deal does not pencil at this ARV and repair estimate, not a bug. Either the repair estimate is too high, the ARV is too optimistic, or the seller's asking price needs to come down significantly.
Track this deal in a real pipeline.
Pipelio keeps ARV, repairs, and MAO on the lead itself, so you never re-run this math in a separate tab.
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