A Moreno Valley Flip, Every Dollar: What a Real IE Deal Costs

Most flipping content talks in theory — or in screenshots with the line items cropped out. Here is a deal we closed in 2025, purchase to recording, every dollar, from our founding team's own books. No averages. No hypotheticals.

The property: a 4-bed, 2-bath, 1,524 sq ft cosmetic flip in Moreno Valley. Standard buy box. Boring on purpose — and very profitable.

The acquisition

The money

Hard money, first position: the loan covered purchase plus a rehab holdback at roughly 90% loan-to-cost and 75% loan-to-ARV — meaning the loan was sized to the lender's opinion of the after-repair value, not our opinion or excitement. Rate: 9.99%. One point, plus roughly $1,000 in loan fees and appraisal. Twelve-month term, planned as a 90-day exit.

Cash actually required to close: about $52,000. Total cash through the deal, including loan payments during the rehab: about $66,000. That's the real answer to "how much money do I need to flip at this price point" — not $25,000, not $100,000.

The rehab

Standard cosmetic scope — no major systems work. Budget: $72,213, including a small contingency. Actual at close: $74,167. A 3% overrun — which is normal life on a rehab, and exactly why the contingency existed. That covered labor, materials, subs (roof, landscaping, HVAC, windows, specialty flooring), city fees, and inspections.

The exit

The ARV target from average sold comps — same micro-market, prior 90 days, similar finish — was $599,000. How that number gets built, and why the lender's appraiser has to agree with it before any of this works, is its own discipline: see why your ARV has to survive the lender's comps.

The P&L

Hold time: 90 days from close to recording.

Two things to notice

The sale hit the ARV to the dollar. $599,000 target, $599,000 sale. Not luck — when the ARV comes from the average sold comp, the exit was priced before the offer was written.

The margin was about 13% on total cost — not 20%. The "I only flip 20% deals" crowd is mostly describing deals they aren't doing. A disciplined ~13% on a 90-day cycle, repeated, beats a fantasy that never closes. And the calendar is a line item: slip this same deal from 90 days to 180 and the hard-money interest alone eats roughly another $11,000 of that margin.

One more honest note: the 3% rehab overrun didn't sink anything because every other cost was already on the sheet — points, interest, holding, escrow, concessions, both commissions. Deals die from the costs that were never written down, not the ones that ran 3% over.

What this means if you're buying in the IE

A deal like this is repeatable — simple product, cosmetic scope, comp-backed exit — but only if your numbers are complete before you offer. That's the readiness gap PropScoutr exists to close for Riverside and San Bernardino investors: pre-triaged deals, comp-backed ARV bands, and the full cost math. Start with the free buy-box scorecard — two minutes, and deals get matched to your actual criteria: Build your buy box.