A flip runs from the day you buy the house to the day you sell it. Every month in between has a price, and on the financed flip below, most of that price is interest.
How long does it take to flip a house on average?
The typical flip takes 165 days, about five and a half months, according to ATTOM, a property data company that tracks flips through sale records. That’s the figure in its report for the first quarter of 2026, released in June, up from 160 days the quarter before and 164 a year earlier. For all of 2025, its year-end report puts the average at 163 days from purchase to resale.
When this post was written, in September 2026, the first-quarter report was ATTOM’s newest. It updates the figures each quarter, so check its flipping reports for a later one.
Read the number with two limits in mind. ATTOM counts a sale as a flip only when the same home had sold within the previous 12 months, so a project that drags past a year never makes it into the figure. And it’s a nationwide figure, not a schedule for your house.
Where do the months go?
A flip’s clock starts when you close on the house and stops when your buyer does. Four stretches fill the time between:
- Getting started. Permits, if the work needs them, and a start date from your contractor. The local permit office can tell you how long its reviews are taking.
- The rehab. The work itself, plus any inspections the permits call for.
- Finding a buyer. Listing, showings and offers. A local agent can tell you how long similar renovated homes have been taking to sell.
- The buyer’s closing. A buyer with a mortgage has to wait for an appraisal and a loan approval.
One federal rule limits how soon you can sell to some buyers. If your buyer signs the contract 90 days or fewer after the day you closed on the house, the home isn’t eligible for a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (24 CFR 203.37a). So a flip that closes its sale three months in can’t go to a buyer using an FHA loan, because that buyer’s contract would have come too soon.
What are holding costs, and what does a month cost?
Holding costs are the bills that keep coming while you own the house: property taxes, insurance, utilities, and upkeep such as lawn care. A flip bought with a loan adds interest on top.
Take a house bought for $200,000 that needs a $46,000 rehab and should sell for $355,000 once it’s done. That sale price is the after-repair value, or ARV. A short-term loan covers 85% of the price and all of the rehab, $216,000 in all, at 10% interest plus 2 points (2% of the loan, paid up front). The loan is interest-only: you pay the interest each month, and the sale pays off the loan. Buying costs 2% of the price, selling costs 8% of the sale price, and the bills run $1,000 a month.
That makes each month cost $2,800. The bills are $1,000, and the interest is $1,800, which is 10% of $216,000 spread across 12 months.
What does a slow flip do to the profit?
A slow flip pays its extra holding costs and interest right out of the profit. Here’s the same house sold at six months and at twelve. Only the last two lines change.
| 6 months | 12 months | |
|---|---|---|
| Sale price (ARV) | $355,000 | $355,000 |
| Purchase | −$200,000 | −$200,000 |
| Rehab | −$46,000 | −$46,000 |
| Closing costs when you buy (2%) | −$4,000 | −$4,000 |
| Selling costs (8%) | −$28,400 | −$28,400 |
| Loan points (2%) | −$4,320 | −$4,320 |
| Taxes, insurance and utilities | −$6,000 | −$12,000 |
| Loan interest | −$10,800 | −$21,600 |
| Profit | +$55,480 | +$38,680 |
These are example figures, not a forecast for any market.
The six extra months cost $16,800, and the rehab didn’t go a dollar over budget. That’s 30% of the profit, lost to waiting.
A slow flip also takes more of your own money, because you pay the bills and the interest as you go. Three months at a time, it looks like this:
| Holding costs and interest | Profit | Your cash in | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | $8,400 | $63,880 | $46,720 |
| 6 months | $16,800 | $55,480 | $55,120 |
| 9 months | $25,200 | $47,080 | $63,520 |
| 12 months | $33,600 | $38,680 | $71,920 |
Your cash in counts the down payment, the buying costs, the points, and every month of bills and interest. By month 12 you have $16,800 more in the deal and $16,800 less profit to show for it. For a delay that lands together with a rehab overrun and a lower sale price, see what three surprises did to a flip that passed the 70% rule.
Does paying cash make a delay cheaper?
Paying cash makes each month of delay cheaper, but not free. ATTOM’s first-quarter report found that 61.1% of flipped homes were bought with all cash. With no loan, there are no points and no interest, so each month costs this flip only its $1,000 of bills. Bought for cash, it makes $70,600 at six months and $64,600 at twelve.
The bigger cost is the money it ties up. The cash buyer has $256,000 in the house at six months, against $55,120 with the loan, and every month of delay keeps it there.
How long should a flip take in your plan?
Build your schedule stretch by stretch, from your contractor’s start date and a local agent’s answer on selling times rather than from hope. Then set it beside ATTOM’s 165 days. If your plan is much shorter, be ready to say why. A paint-and-flooring job with no permits moves faster than one that moves walls.
Then find two deadlines on your own flip:
- The month the profit stops being worth the work. Say you wouldn’t take this job for less than $40,000. It has until month 11, when the profit is $41,480. At month 12 it’s $38,680.
- The month the profit runs out. Here that’s month 26. Interest is $1,800 of every $2,800, so the rate on your loan matters more the longer the job runs.
If the house won’t sell, you can rent it out instead, and this BRRRR example shows how a refinance decides how much of your cash comes back.
To find your own deadlines, enter the monthly bills as Holding costs in the flip calculator (it works out the interest from the loan) and your schedule as the Holding period. Then add a month at a time until the profit drops below your number.