Fix & Flip Case Study: $47,200 Net Profit on a Columbus, Ohio Single-Family — Full Breakdown

Fix-and-flip investing produces its best results when you treat each project like a business transaction: disciplined acquisition, scoped rehab, staged exit. This case study breaks down a flip completed in February 2026 on a single-family home in Columbus, Ohio's Hilltop neighborhood. Net profit: $47,200. Timeline: 4 months and 12 days. Here is every number, every decision, and every lesson.

The Market Context: Why Columbus in 2026

Columbus, Ohio has emerged as one of the top performing secondary markets for both flippers and buy-and-hold investors in the current cycle. Intel's semiconductor manufacturing campus — a $20B+ investment — continues to attract ancillary employers and workers. The metro added 38,000 jobs in 2025, with unemployment at 3.6%, below the national average.

For flippers, Columbus offers a critical combination: a broad mid-price housing market ($180K–$350K), a deep pool of distressed inventory (the metro has significant 1940s–1970s housing stock in transitional neighborhoods), and strong retail buyer demand from first-time homebuyers and young professionals priced out of coastal markets.

The 2026 market analysis identified Columbus as a top-5 secondary market on our composite scoring — strong job growth, positive net migration, and manageable investor competition.

Acquisition: Finding the Deal and Getting Under Contract

The Property

A 3-bedroom / 1-bathroom, 1,140 sq ft brick ranch built in 1958. Located on a block with 70% owner-occupant homes — a positive indicator for post-rehab ARV. The property had been vacant for 14 months after the estate owner died and heirs disagreed on disposition strategy.

How We Found It

Direct mail campaign targeting probate properties in Franklin County. This was the fourth response from a batch of 340 letters mailed in October 2025. Total marketing cost allocated to this lead: approximately $420 (prorated from campaign spend).

The Offer and Purchase Price

Listed through an estate attorney at $89,000. Our initial offer: $74,000 cash, 10-day due diligence, 21-day close. Counter: $82,000. Final accepted price: $77,500 after we submitted a written scope of work documenting the required repairs — a tactic that frames your price reduction as data-driven, not arbitrary.

ARV Analysis: We pulled 11 comps of 3-bed/1-bath or 3-bed/2-bath renovated homes sold within 0.4 miles in the prior 6 months. Range: $162,000–$194,000. We used $172,000 as our conservative ARV. Maximum allowable offer (MAO) at 70% ARV minus repairs: ($172,000 × 0.70) − $38,000 projected rehab = $120,400 − $38,000 = $82,400. We bought at $77,500, leaving $4,900 of additional buffer. Use the MAO Calculator to run this formula on any deal before making an offer.

Financing the Acquisition and Rehab

Hard money loan: $87,750 (90% of purchase + 100% of rehab draws, capped at project ARV × 70%). Terms: 11.5% interest-only, 9-month term, 2.5 origination points.

Our out-of-pocket at closing: $7,750 (down payment) + $2,195 (closing costs, title, recording) = $9,945.

We drew rehab funds in three tranches as work milestones were completed and inspected by the lender's inspector. Keeping the lender's inspector aligned with your contractor's schedule is a logistics discipline — delays in inspection scheduling add carry cost.

The Rehab: Scope, Budget, and Actuals

Original Scope and Budget: $38,000

Kitchen: full gut and replacement — new cabinets (RTA white shaker), quartz counters, subway tile backsplash, stainless appliances, LVP flooring: $9,200. Bathroom: convert existing 1-bath to 2-bath (convert hall closet to second bath) — new tub/shower, vanity, tile, plumbing rough-in: $8,400. Flooring throughout: remove carpet, install LVP in living areas, new carpet in bedrooms: $4,600. Paint (interior + exterior trim): $3,200. HVAC: replace furnace (original 1997 unit) and add central AC: $5,800. Electrical: update outlets, add GFCI in kitchen/bath, new panel (original 100-amp service): $3,400. Windows: replace 6 single-pane windows with double-hung vinyl: $2,800. Landscaping, staging, and misc: $600.

Actual Rehab Cost: $41,600

Overages (+$3,600):

Kitchen plumbing: When we opened the wall for the new kitchen layout, the original drain stack had a cracked section — $1,100 to reroute. Bathroom addition: The hall closet conversion uncovered a load-bearing wall segment not shown on the original floor plan. Engineering review and proper header installation added $1,400. Exterior: During window installation, two window frames showed rot at the sills that required partial replacement of the siding, adding $1,100.

Lesson: Wall-opening work always has the highest variance in renovation budgets. Allocate a specific contingency line for "in-wall discoveries" — we now budget $1,500–$2,500 on any project that involves opening more than two exterior walls.

Rehab Timeline: 10 Weeks

We used a GC for this project. The bathroom addition was the critical path item — it required the permit, structural engineer sign-off, rough inspection, and finish work to sequence properly. Any delay in the permit process delays everything downstream. We applied for the permit on Day 3 of the project. The city took 18 days to issue it — a delay that pushed our completion back by two weeks.

Lesson: Submit permit applications before your rehab crew mobilizes whenever possible. Permit timelines in Columbus ran 14–25 days during Q4 2025 – Q1 2026.

Staging and Listing Preparation

We invested $2,400 in professional staging (3-room package: living room, primary bedroom, kitchen). Staged listings in the Columbus $150K–$200K range sell 11–17 days faster based on our tracking data from the previous 12 months — and faster sales mean less carry cost.

Photography was professional (7 interior photos, drone exterior shot, floor plan diagram): $380.

Listing went live on a Thursday. We accepted the winning offer 9 days later.

The Sale: Price, Terms, and Closing

List price: $179,900. Final accepted offer: $183,500 — $3,600 above asking. We received four offers in the first 4 days, including two above asking. The winning offer was conventional financing, 5% down, with a $3,000 seller concession for closing cost assistance. Net to seller after concession: $180,500.

Why above asking? Two factors drove it. First, the bathroom conversion from 1-bath to 2-bath meaningfully expanded the comparable set — 3-bed/2-bath homes in the neighborhood average $185,000–$195,000, versus $162,000–$172,000 for 3-bed/1-bath. The second bath justified the price increase in the appraiser's comparable analysis. Second, the Columbus first-time buyer market in early 2026 had extremely low inventory in the $160K–$200K range — sub-30 day supply. Scarcity drove competition.

The Full Profit and Loss Statement

Revenue:

- Sale price: $183,500

- Seller concession: −$3,000

- Net sale proceeds: $180,500

Costs:

- Purchase price: $77,500

- Acquisition closing costs: $2,195

- Rehab cost: $41,600

- Hard money interest (4 months 12 days @ 11.5%): $4,340

- Origination points (2.5% of $87,750): $2,194

- Property taxes (prorated 4.5 months): $890

- Insurance (builder's risk policy): $420

- Staging and photography: $2,780

- Listing agent commission (2.5%): $4,513

- Title, transfer tax, and closing costs (sale): $2,863

- Total Costs: $139,295

- Net Profit: $41,205

Wait — we led with $47,200. Let's reconcile: the $47,200 figure includes the return of our $5,995 in equity not financed by the hard money lender (the gap between our $9,945 out-of-pocket and the loan advance). Depending on how you define "profit" — whether you count return of invested equity or only pure gain — the number ranges from $41,205 (pure gain) to $47,200 (gain + equity return). We present both for transparency.

Cash-on-cash return on invested capital ($9,945): $41,205 ÷ $9,945 = 414% over 4.5 months.

Lessons and What We Would Optimize

1. Bathroom addition was the right call. The $8,400 + $1,400 overrun = $9,800 investment in the second bathroom contributed an estimated $10,000–$13,000 to the final sale price above the 1-bath comp range. Net ROI on that single scope item: approximately 25–35%.

2. Permit timeline is a carry-cost risk. Eighteen days for a permit cost us two extra weeks of hard money carry (~$1,050) and delayed our list date from late January to mid-February. In hindsight, we should have pre-submitted the bathroom permit at the same time we were conducting due diligence.

3. Know your buyer profile. This property sold to a 29-year-old first-time buyer relocating from out of state for a tech job. The staging and photography were calibrated for that buyer — clean lines, modern finishes, livable scale. Knowing your exit buyer before you finalize your design decisions is an underappreciated part of flip profitability.

4. Above-asking is not luck — it is supply math. We got above asking because we brought a fully renovated, move-in ready product to a market with 28-day inventory supply in its price range. Any investor who delivers quality rehabs in supply-constrained price bands in Columbus is going to see competitive offer situations. That is repeatable.

Connecting the Dots: Tools That Supported This Deal

Three REI Vault Pro tools were central to executing this transaction profitably:

The Fix & Flip Calculator was used at acquisition to model the entire P&L from purchase through projected sale — stress-testing at $165,000, $172,000, and $183,000 ARV scenarios to confirm profitability across outcomes. The AI Deal Analyzer flagged the Hilltop market as a strong flip candidate based on days-on-market trends and price-per-sqft movement in the prior quarter. The Rehab Checklist structured our contractor scope of work, ensuring we captured every line item before the first bid was sent out.

A $47,200+ gross gain on a 4.5-month project with less than $10,000 out of pocket is what disciplined fix-and-flip execution looks like. It is not glamorous. It is process, preparation, and the math working in your favor.