BRRRR
What is BRRRR?
Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat — the classic value-add investor playbook.
BRRRR is an acronym for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat — a real-estate investment strategy popularized by BiggerPockets. The core idea is to buy a distressed property below market value, force appreciation through renovation, stabilize it with a paying tenant, and then refinance at the new, higher value to pull most or all of your invested capital back out. The recycled cash funds the next deal, and the cycle repeats.
The math that makes BRRRR work depends on the post-rehab refinance step. If you can refinance at 75–80% of the new (higher) appraised value, and the post-rehab value is high enough relative to your all-in cost (purchase + rehab), then the cash you receive at refinance can cover the bridge loan that funded the rehab — leaving you with a cash-flowing rental and very little of your own money still tied up.
BRRRR doesn’t work on every deal. The property has to be acquired meaningfully under market, the rehab budget has to be disciplined, and the post-rehab rent has to support the new permanent loan’s payment. When all three line up, BRRRR is the most capital-efficient way to scale a single-family rental portfolio.
How BRRRR works at Total Quality Lending
Total Quality Lending’s DSCR cash-out refinance is the permanent loan that powers the Refinance step of BRRRR — up to 80% LTV at the top tier on standard DSCR loans. Once the property is leased and the new appraised value reflects your improvements, we underwrite on the new rent and the new value, and the cash-out check pays down your bridge.
We do not fund the Buy or Rehab phases ourselves. For those phases, investors typically use hard-money lenders or private capital, then refinance into TQL DSCR once the property is rent-ready. We also have a dedicated BRRRR loan page with detailed worked examples.