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MaxFee™

How much money are you leaving
on every deal?

You already negotiated the deal. Don't guess what your assignment is worth.

MaxFee is an assignment fee calculator that finds the highest assignment fee you can charge before buyers start dropping out. Charge more without pushing the buyer away.

Get startedSee how it works

Want to understand the method first? See how to determine an assignment fee by hand from real buyer data →

Real salesWhat buyers paid for houses like yours
Real buyersContracts sold on Apex Vivus
Real mathThe fee is worked out, not guessed
Plain answersHumphrey tells you why
The money you never knew you lost

You assigned the contract for a $10,000 fee.

You could have charged $14,750 without losing a single buyer.

You picked$10,000A fair-looking fee. It sold fast.
MaxFee found$14,750The highest fee your buyers will still pay.
You left on the table$4,750Handed to the buyer — and you'd never know.

Imagine you have a deal under contract for $100,000. A $10,000 assignment fee feels good because why not? Seven out of ten buyers are interested at $110,000.

One problem. Little did you know that all seven would have bought that deal at $114,750, and you'll never know.

MaxFee looks at what buyers here have paid and are actually paying for houses like yours, and raises the fee to see where buyers start to walk away, and stops just before. Not a "nice" round number because why not — the highest fee your buyers will still accept.

Two limits. One answer.

MaxFee keeps pushing until the data says stop.

Every higher fee has to pass two tests: enough buyers must still want it, and your buyer must still make money on it. The first test to fail stops the fee.

MaxFee's Profitability Gauge panel: deal health 70, the two rings, Safe / Moderate / Aggressive and the Maximize assignment fee button

The outer ring is the buyers.

How many buyers would still pay it?

It counts the buyers who could buy this house at each fee, from what they actually paid for houses like this one in this area — in public records and in contracts sold on the Apex Vivus repository. The blue numbers on the ring are those counts.

Share of buyers still interested at each fee

80%+50%25%10%too little data

The inner ring is your assignment fee.

How big a fee can you charge?

Going around the inner ring from left to right, your assignment fee goes up — the dollar amounts are printed just inside it. The color at each fee tells you if that fee works. Green: your buyer can pay it and still make good money. Red on the right: too high — your buyer wouldn't make enough to want the deal. Red on the far left: too low — you're leaving money on the table.

Where each mode stops on the inner ring

SafeModerateAggressivetoo high

Where both agree is your fee.

What's the most you can charge?

MaxFee looks for the fees that pass both tests at once: enough buyers would still buy the contract, and your fee still leaves them a fair profit. The highest fee that passes both is the maximum wholesale fee you can charge while buyers still want the deal. Go past it and you start losing buyers, or your fee eats the buyer's profit. MaxFee also tells you which of the two set the limit.

One number. Thousands of checks behind it.

MaxFee doesn't calculate one fee.
It tests all of them.

$10,000. $10,050. $10,100. Higher and higher — until buyer demand or deal profitability finally says no.

At every step, MaxFee checks the property economics against real buyer behavior: public records of investor purchases, what buyers actually paid for comparable properties, contracts sold through the Apex Vivus network, and buyer buy boxes. It counts who is still in at the higher price and checks whether the buyer still has enough profit left. MaxFee keeps moving the fee upward until one side breaks. The last fee that still passes both tests is your MaxFee.

Chart 1

Will the market accept it?

MaxFee looks at every comparable house investors bought in this area — same type, similar value — and what they paid for it compared with its value. For every fee, the deal acceptance probability is the share of those purchases made at your price-to-value or higher: how often the market here has accepted a price this high for a house like this. On this deal: 73% at $10,000 and 70% at $14,750.

Chart 2

How many buyers would still pay?

For every fee, MaxFee counts how many buyers would still buy the contract, from what they have actually paid for houses like this one and what their buy boxes allow. On this deal, 35 buyers would still pay $14,750 — the same 35 as at $10,000. This chart is the outer ring of the gauge.

MaxFee tells you what to charge.
Humphrey tells you what to do next.

Every fee comes with a plain-English reason — including when the answer is "don't do this deal."

Sometimes your deal isn't the problem. Your buyer list is.
Your buyers stop the fee at$122,000
The numbers alone allow$192,500
The gap$70,500
Set by your buyers: 50% of the 50 buyers on record who shop this price range would still pay up to $122,000. On the numbers alone you could charge up to $192,500 — market it wider to reach more buyers.
ARV $600,000 · seller $250,000 · no repairs — finding more buyers is worth more here than renegotiating the deal.
The deal is the limit
$47,800
Set by the deal: above $47,800 the buyer's return drops under 15%. Your buyers would pay more — 145 would still pay this.
ARV $300,000 · seller $140,000 · repairs $30,000
The seller price is the problem
No fee
At this seller price the buyer can't make 8% even with no fee. The seller price needs to come down.
ARV $200,000 · seller $150,000 · repairs $40,000
No buyers here
No fee
No investor has bought a house like this in this area in the last 24 months. There are no buyers here for this deal.
ARV $1,000,000 · seller $3 · deal health 100 — a great deal on paper, in an area where nobody buys
The question every wholesaler asks

How much should your assignment fee be?

There is no single right number. A $10,000 assignment fee can be too low on one contract and too high on the next. Your highest assignment fee is the most your buyers will still pay above your contract price, while the deal still leaves them enough profit to want it.

That number depends on three things: what investors in the area have actually paid for houses like yours, which buyers are still in at each price, and the deal's own numbers — ARV, seller price and repairs. MaxFee works it out for each deal, to the nearest $50.

Industry surveys put average assignment fees anywhere from a few thousand dollars to well over $10,000, depending on the market and the wholesaler. An average can't tell you what buyers will pay for your deal. Read the full guide: how much should your assignment fee be?

Most assignment fee calculators stop at a formula.

The usual formula

ARV × 70% − repairs − your contract price = your fee

$300,000 × 70% − $30,000 − $140,000 = $40,000

A rule of thumb. It doesn't know who the buyers are, what they've paid, or what they'll pay for this house.

MaxFee on the same deal

Real investor purchases + your buyers + the deal's numbers

$47,800 — the highest fee where half the buyers in this price range still pay and the buyer still keeps 15%

Worked out from data, and it tells you which limit stopped the fee. Sample data shown.

Jerryll Noorden, founder of REILink
Who built MaxFee

A robotics scientist who wholesales.

My name is Jerryll Noorden. I have been flipping houses and wholesaling since 2016. Before that, I was a robotics scientist, building technology funded by NASA, the Office of Naval Research and DARPA.

MaxFee exists because most assignment fees are guessed instead of worked out from actual data. So I built it the way I'd build anything else: start with the data — what buyers have really paid and what they'll still pay — and let the math give you the number.

Jerryll NoordenFounder, REILink & Apex Vivus

Questions.

How much should my assignment fee be?

Your assignment fee should be the most your buyers will still pay above your contract price, while the deal still leaves them enough profit. There is no single right number for every deal — MaxFee works it out for each deal from real investor purchases in the area, your buyers and the deal's numbers.

How do you calculate an assignment fee in real estate?

You calculate an assignment fee in real estate by subtracting your contract price from the price the buyer pays for the contract. The hard part is knowing the highest price buyers will pay. MaxFee raises the fee one step at a time, counts how many buyers would still pay at each step, and stops at the highest fee that still works.

How do I calculate my assignment fee?

You calculate your assignment fee by finding the highest price your buyers will pay for the contract and subtracting your contract price. MaxFee does the first part from data: what investors near you actually paid for houses like yours, and which of your buyers would still pay at each price.

What is a good assignment fee?

A good assignment fee is the highest one your buyers will still pay while the deal still works for them. That's a reasonable assignment fee — not a greedy one. Charge less and you leave money on the table; charge more and buyers walk away. A good fee sits right at that line.

What is the average or typical assignment fee?

The average or typical assignment fee is about $13,000 nationally, according to a Real Estate Bees survey of more than 1,000 wholesalers, with state averages from about $5,000 to $22,000. A typical wholesale assignment fee says nothing about your deal — MaxFee looks at what buyers pay for houses like yours, where your house is.

What is the maximum assignment fee I can charge?

Your maximum assignment fee is the highest fee that passes two tests: enough buyers would still buy the contract, and the buyer still keeps enough profit. Whichever limit comes first sets the maximum. MaxFee finds it to the nearest $50 and tells you which limit stopped it.

Can an assignment fee be too high?

Yes, an assignment fee can be too high. Past a certain fee, buyers start walking away, or the buyer's profit gets too thin to be worth the work. MaxFee shows both limits and stops the fee just before the first one.

What percentage should an assignment fee be?

There is no fixed assignment fee percentage. The same fee can be a small share of one deal and too much on another, because it depends on the house, the price and the buyers. On MaxFee's sample deal, the fee comes out at 15.9% of ARV — on another deal it could be half that or double.

How much profit should I leave the cash buyer?

You should leave the cash buyer enough profit that real buyers still buy — and MaxFee measures that instead of assuming it: at every fee it checks the buyer's profit after their costs and counts how many actual buyers, from recorded purchases and buy boxes, would still buy. Its Safe, Moderate and Aggressive settings only set how far you push: the buyer keeps at least 18%, 15% or 12%, and only while enough real buyers are still in.

Does the 70% rule determine my assignment fee?

No, the 70% rule does not determine your assignment fee. The 70% rule is a rule of thumb for what a buyer might pay. It doesn't know who your buyers are or what investors in your area actually pay. MaxFee uses real purchases instead.

How do I know what a cash buyer will pay for my wholesale deal?

You know what a cash buyer will pay by looking at what they have actually paid. MaxFee uses public records of cash and LLC purchases of houses like yours in the same area, contracts sold on the Apex Vivus network, and the buy boxes buyers fill in on REILink.

How does MaxFee work out the fee?

MaxFee works out the fee from what buyers actually paid for houses like yours in the same area — in public records and in contracts sold on Apex Vivus — plus buyers' buy boxes. It raises the fee one step at a time, counts how many buyers would still pay, and stops at the highest fee where enough of them are still in. It also checks that the buyer still makes a fair profit.

What if no investor has bought in my area?

If no investor has bought in your area, there are no buyers there for this deal, and MaxFee tells you so instead of guessing a fee. That's a signal about the area, not missing data.

How is this different from OfferAid?

MaxFee is different from OfferAid because they answer different questions. OfferAid helps you build the offer to the seller. MaxFee takes the contract you have and finds the highest assignment fee buyers will pay for it. They work side by side in REILink.

Where do I find MaxFee?

You find MaxFee in DispoAid in REILink. Load a saved deal or type the numbers, pick your buyer folders, and it runs.

You fought for the deal.
Keep what it's worth.

Find the highest assignment fee you can charge before buyers start dropping out.

Run MaxFee on a deal

Part of DispoAid in REILink.