Strategy
Fix and flip
Myrtle Beach.
By Devin Day, Operations Officer · Chapter3 Realty · Updated September 7, 2026
What a fix and flip costs on the Grand Strand, how the financing works, and one real example that sold the day construction ended.
The strategy
Fix and flip math for Myrtle Beach.
A fix and flip is a short hold. You buy a house below market, fix it up, and sell it within a few months. The profit comes from buying right and keeping every cost on a leash. Below is one full example with round numbers. Chapter3 sells the finished flips it helps buy on the Grand Strand, so this page covers the sale in as much detail as the purchase.
The math
How a fix and flip works, step by step
- 1
Buy below market. Work with Chapter3 to find houses in distress and priced under the market. What you pay sets your profit before any work starts.
- 2
Price the repairs before you offer. Get a contractor's number, not an estimate of your own.
- 3
Monitor holding costs while the work runs. Every extra month is another month of loan payments, taxes and insurance.
- 4
Work with Chapter3 to sell the finished house. Price it against what closed nearby, not against what is listed.
- 5
Pay the tax. A flip is inventory, not investment property, so it does not qualify for a 1031 exchange.
Every flip starts with the ARV, what the house will be worth once it is fixed up. Take that number. Subtract everything you spend. What is left is your profit.
Run your own deal
Above the 70 to 75 percent most flippers aim for, so this deal leaves little room for the rehab to run over.
A real one. An investor here inherited a house from his father and put it through a full repair over about two and a half months. An agent at Chapter3 advertised it for sale during the construction. It went under contract a week before the work finished, and it closed for cash the day construction ended, at $335,000. After construction and fees he netted $224,300, and within the same month he put part of it into two more beach homes, financed through BrickWood Mortgage. The step that transfers to any flip: advertise before construction ends, because the holding costs stop the day it sells. His numbers, not a promise.
Who buys the finished flip: mostly buyers moving here from out of state, and retirees. We spend several thousand dollars a month advertising to buyers relocating to the Grand Strand, so a finished flip goes in front of that audience the day it lists. Lighter renovations sometimes fit the rental buyers on our list before they reach the open market.
Look at the fourth line. In this example, holding and selling costs take $30,000, more than half the rehab budget.
Quick gut check
Should you flip at all?
If the second box worries you more than the first one excites you, start with a slower strategy.
Why people do it
- +Profit within a few months
- +No tenants, no landlording
- +Your cash comes back in months rather than years
What can go wrong
- !Rehab runs over and eats the profit
- !The market cools while you hold it
- !A slow sale adds holding costs every month you own it
Budget before the offer
The four costs fix and flippers need to budget for
Purchase price and rehab are the obvious numbers. Four more decide whether the margin survives, and every one of them grows the longer you own the house. Budget all four before you make the offer.
Permits
In Horry County a permit is required to replace a roof, move walls, or change electrical, plumbing or mechanical systems. Finish work like paint and flooring generally needs none. Unpermitted work brings stop-work orders and fines, and it resurfaces at resale when the buyer's lender asks. Your contractor pulls the permits. Confirm with your contractor that every permit has been applied for and issued.
The loan
A flip loan charges interest every month you hold the house, and the rate is higher than a normal mortgage. That cost is the reason a project that slips two months can lose the profit it was priced to make. Borrow for the timeline you can hold to, not the one that looks best in the projection.
Holding costs
Property tax, insurance and utilities keep billing the whole time you own the house. An investment property is taxed at the 6 percent assessment ratio instead of the 4 percent an owner-occupied home gets, so the tax bill is several times what the seller was paying. Our agents run that number on the actual address before you offer.
Closing costs
You pay a set of fees when you buy and again when you sell, including South Carolina deed stamps of $1.85 per $500 of price on the sale. Attorney fees, title work and recording sit inside the same line. In the example above, holding and selling costs together take $30,000, more than half the rehab budget.
Where the deals come from
Wholesaling is mostly closed in South Carolina
South Carolina's 2024 license law treats marketing a home you only hold under contract as wholesaling. Licensed brokerages are barred from doing it or assisting it, and without a license a wholesaler may market only the contract itself, never the property.
The discounted houses that used to move through wholesalers now reach buyers through agents, estate sales and bank-owned listings. Who hears about one first comes down to who knows the seller's agent. The agents at Chapter3 have sold on the Grand Strand for decades and hear about these houses before they reach the portals.
Funding the flip
Fix and flip loans in Myrtle Beach
Most flips use a hard money loan. It is a short-term loan that closes quickly and can pay for part of the repairs. The rate is higher than a normal mortgage, so every extra month you own the house costs you money.
You do not have to shop for that loan. Our preferred lender, BrickWood Mortgage, offers fix-and-flip and bridge loans, so the purchase, the loan, and the repair budget are all planned together, by people who have priced Grand Strand rehabs before.
BrickWood Mortgage also finances new construction for investors. On their investor program they underwrite the deal rather than your income, and in most cases they do not ask for income documents. The guideline they have described to us is that the finished house works as a rental or sells for at least 10 percent above what it cost to build. BrickWood sets those terms and changes them, so ask them what applies to your build. A construction loan on a house you will live in is a different product with more steps.
Plan how you will sell before you buy. Homes here sell best in spring and summer, so try to finish the project before that season starts. Keep a backup plan too. If the house would make a good rental, refinance into a DSCR loan, which is approved on the property's rent instead of your tax returns, and keep it instead of selling. That approach is called BRRRR: buy, fix, rent, refinance, repeat.
Before you write the offer, run the address through the analyzer below to see if the rent would cover the house.
Paying cash
Can I get good opportunities without being a cash buyer?
A cash offer is stronger than a financed one, and nothing changes that. Bank-owned and off-market listings are the first two places our agents look, and both usually go to the buyer who can close soonest. Cash has no appraisal to fail and no loan to fall through, which those sellers value above a slightly higher price.
Cash also removes the largest holding cost. No loan interest builds up while the work runs, so a project that slips a month costs you time instead of money. The tradeoff is that your capital sits in one house until it sells, where a construction loan can spread the same cash across several projects at once.
You can still buy these houses with a loan, and off-market is where it happens, because there is no competing cash offer to lose to. Our agents talk to owners before a house is listed and find out what the seller needs. Then we build the offer around it: the closing date they want, a shorter inspection window, more earnest money, or a price that pays them for waiting on your loan. A seller who has not listed yet is usually weighing one offer instead of five, and that is the situation where financing wins.
Let us help with your next investment.
Send us an address you are looking at, or have us send you an investment property for sale. We will run the rent, the expenses and the association documents before you write an offer, at no cost.
Call 854.333.2135Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Is fix and flip profitable in Myrtle Beach?
It can be, but the margins are thinner than the television version. Demand here is seasonal, so exit timing matters. Carrying costs, the higher investment tax rate, and selling costs all eat into profit. Your profit comes down to the price you pay and the accuracy of the rehab budget.
How do I calculate flip profit?
Start with the ARV, what the house will be worth once it is fixed up. Subtract the purchase price, the rehab cost, every holding cost, and the selling costs. What remains is profit. Underestimating holding and selling costs is the most common mistake.
What financing do flippers use?
Most flips use a hard money loan, a short-term loan that closes quickly and can pay for part of the repairs. The rate is higher than a normal mortgage, so the faster you finish and sell, the more you keep.
What if my flip does not sell?
Always model a rental backup. If the resale market softens, refinance into a DSCR loan, which qualifies on the property's rent, and hold the house as a rental. That converts the flip into a BRRRR and gives the deal a floor. Our long-term rental analyzer shows whether it would cash flow.
When is the best time to sell a flip on the Grand Strand?
Resale demand is generally strongest heading into the spring and summer buying season. A flip that finishes in the slower months can sit. Time the completion to the selling season to protect the margin.
Does BrickWood finance new construction for investors?
Yes. BrickWood Mortgage finances ground-up construction for investors, in most cases without income documents. The loan can stand on the deal when the finished house cash flows as a rental or the numbers show it selling for at least 10 percent over the build cost. Primary-home construction loans take longer and involve more paperwork.
Can I do a 1031 exchange on a flip?
Usually no. A house bought to fix and resell is inventory, not investment property, and the IRS excludes property held for sale from 1031 treatment. If the exchange option matters to you, hold the finished house as a rental first and confirm the timing with a tax advisor. Our 1031 exchange guide covers the deadlines.