Selling a Flip in Denver: An Investor’s Guide to the Exit
Most investors I talk to spend weeks underwriting the buy and about an hour thinking about the exit. That is backwards. What you net at the end decides whether the deal was worth doing, and you can know most of that number before you ever go under contract.
I have bought and sold 35+ properties in the Denver metro and I list flips for other investors. Here is how I think about the sell side.
Your exit price is an input, not a hope
The ARV is the number every other number leans on. Get it wrong by 5% on a $475,000 resale and you just erased $23,750 of profit, which on most flips is the whole margin.
A real ARV comes from sold comps, not active listings. Actives tell you what sellers wish they could get. Solds tell you what buyers actually paid. I look at sales within about half a mile from the last six months, adjust for square footage, beds, baths, lot, and finish level, and throw out the outliers. Then I look at how long each one took to sell, because a comp that sat for 90 days is telling you something about that price point.
Holding costs are the quiet profit killer
Every month you hold the property, you are paying some mix of:
- Hard money interest or the cost of your own capital
- Property taxes and insurance, and vacant property insurance costs more than you think
- Utilities during the rehab and the listing period
- Lawn care and snow removal, which matter for showings
Call it 1.5% to 2% of the purchase price per month on a typical Denver flip with leverage. A rehab that runs six weeks long costs you thousands of dollars of margin on top of the schedule.
What Denver buyers actually pay up for
After enough of these you start to see the pattern. The finishes that move the needle in most Denver-area price points are a clean kitchen with counters that photograph well, updated bathrooms, flooring that runs continuously through the main level, fresh neutral paint, and light. The things that rarely return their cost are high-end appliance packages in a starter neighborhood, elaborate landscaping, and anything a buyer cannot see in a photo.
Match the finish level to the comps. If the $450,000 comps have quartz and LVP, you do not need quartzite and white oak.
The listing fee is pure margin
Here is the part investors are usually fastest to understand. On a $450,000 resale, a 3% listing fee costs $13,500. My fee is $4,500. That is $9,000 of profit that stays in your deal, on one property, for the same MLS listing, the same syndication, and the same negotiation.
Run that across three flips a year and it is $27,000. Investors tend to be the easiest sellers to work with on this, because you already think in basis points and net numbers instead of feelings about the house.
Timing the listing
List it before it is completely finished when you can. I would rather get photos scheduled and the listing built while the punch list is being finished so the house hits the MLS the day it is ready, not nine days later. Thursday and Friday launches still pick up the weekend traffic in most Denver submarkets.
Price it against the comps you underwrote, not against the money you spent. Buyers do not care what the rehab cost.
Before you buy the next one
Send me the address before you close. I will pull sold comps, give you an ARV range with the days on market for each comp, and tell you what I think buyers in that pocket will pay up for. It is free, there is nothing to sign, and I am not your buyer’s agent. If the numbers do not work, I will tell you that too.
When the project is done, I would like the chance to list it for 1%. If you would rather use someone else, the comps are still yours.
Talk to your CPA about the tax side before you sell, especially if you are holding anything long enough to change how it is treated. I am a broker, not a tax advisor, and on flips that difference shows up in real money.