Car Flipping Profit Calculator for Used Car Dealers
The car sold for $4,000 more than you paid for it, so why is there only a fraction of that left in the bank? The auction fee, transport, repairs, interest, weeks of lot costs and the commission all come out of it. Enter a car below and see what it really made, the price you need to break even, and the most you can pay for the next one.
Profit on this car
—
— of the sale price · — on the money you put in
Where the sale price goes
Profit by days in stock
| Sold after | Profit | Per day |
|---|
Quick answer: profit = sale price − (purchase price + buyer fee + transport + reconditioning + holding costs + selling costs). Holding costs = interest + daily lot costs × days in stock. To find the most you can pay: sale price − the profit you want − every other cost.
How to calculate profit on a flipped car
Most people work out a flip as sale price minus purchase price. That number is the gross on paper, and it ignores every cost that comes after the auction hammer. The real calculation has four parts:
Here is the car the calculator starts with:
- Buy it. $8,500 purchase price, $350 buyer fee, $150 transport: $9,000 on the lot.
- Fix it. $600 mechanical, $300 body and paint, $150 detail and $200 for tires and inspection: $1,250.
- Hold it for 45 days. Interest at 8% a year on $8,500 for 45 days is $83.84, and $10 a day for insurance, lot and utilities is $450.
- Sell it. $300 commission, $100 advertising, $75 title and doc costs and $150 set aside for warranty: $625.
- Total cost: $11,408.84. Sold at $12,500, the profit is $1,091.16. That is 8.7% of the sale price, 10.6% on the $10,250 you put into buying and fixing it, and $24.25 for every day it sat on the lot.
On paper this car made $4,000 ($12,500 − $8,500). It actually made $1,091.16. Nearly three quarters of the paper gross went to the cost of getting the car ready, keeping it and selling it.
What does every day in stock cost?
Interest, insurance and your lot's costs run whether or not anyone looks at the car. On the example car that adds up to about $11.86 a day, so the same car sold at the same price makes less the longer it sits:
| Sold after | Profit | Per day in stock |
|---|---|---|
| 15 days | $1,447.05 | $96.47 |
| 30 days | $1,269.11 | $42.30 |
| 45 days | $1,091.16 | $24.25 |
| 60 days | $913.22 | $15.22 |
| 90 days | $557.33 | $6.19 |
| 120 days | $201.44 | $1.68 |
The profit reaches zero at about 137 days. In practice you would drop the price long before that, and every price drop comes straight out of the profit. The calculator's own "Profit by days in stock" table redoes this for your car.
How much should I pay for a car I want to flip?
Start from what the car will sell for, not from what it costs. Take the sale price, subtract the profit you want, subtract the fees, transport, reconditioning, holding and selling costs, and what is left is your ceiling.
For the example car, with a goal of $1,500: $12,500 − $1,500 − $2,825 of other costs leaves $8,175. Interest depends on the purchase price, so the calculator divides by 1.0099, which gives a maximum of $8,095.16. That is $404.84 less than the $8,500 in the example, and paying $8,500 gives up that much of the goal profit.
Use sale prices you have seen cars actually sell at, not the listing prices. A sale price that is $500 too high makes every number in the calculator $500 too good.
Gross vs net profit on a used car
Dealers usually call the sale price minus the cost of the car (often including reconditioning) the front-end gross, and money made on financing and add-ons the back end. Neither is what you keep. Your net profit also takes out the cost of holding and selling the car, and then your general overhead: rent, staff, software, the accountant. The calculator stops before general overhead, because that depends on how many cars you sell. Add up a year of overhead, divide by the cars you sold, and subtract that from each car's profit to get a true net figure.
The costs that flippers usually forget
- The buyer fee. Auction fees can be several hundred dollars, and are often higher on cheaper cars.
- Transport. Moving the car from the auction to your lot, or picking it up yourself.
- Small repairs. Tires, bulbs, wipers, a windshield chip, the inspection.
- Interest. Floor plan or loan interest on every day it sits unsold.
- Selling costs. Commission, listing and advertising fees, title and doc work.
- The comeback. A repair you pay for after the sale, from a small warranty or plain goodwill. Setting money aside for it is cheaper than being surprised by it.
Track the true cost of every car, not just the one you're pricing
This calculator prices one car at a time, before you buy it. The harder part is what happens after: costs turn up in different places, and by the time the car sells nobody remembers what the second round of repairs added. OwnDesk Dealer keeps that record per car. Purchase price, transport, reconditioning, parts and fees roll into one true cost for each unit, so margin is measured against what the car really cost you. The dashboard sorts your inventory by days in stock with the oldest cars first, because those are the ones losing you money.
It also holds the customer CRM, test drives, sales orders and invoices. It's a one-time payment with no monthly fee, it works offline, and your data stays on your own computer. It does not tell you what to bid, and it doesn't do DMV e-filing, lender integrations or feeds to listing sites. If you need those, you need a bigger system. If you are running an independent lot and want to know what each car really made, take a look.
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Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate profit on a flipped car?
What costs should I include when flipping a car?
What is a good profit on a used car?
How much should I pay for a car I want to flip?
What is front-end gross vs net profit?
How is floor plan interest calculated?
How long can a car sit before I lose money on it?
Do I need a dealer license to flip cars?
Is this car flipping calculator free?
See what every car really cost you
OwnDesk Dealer rolls purchase price, transport, reconditioning, parts and fees into one true cost per car, and lists your oldest inventory first. One payment, no subscription, and it works offline.