Backflip Alternative: Deal Run Does Flips, Wholesale, and Rentals

Backflip has carved out a niche in the real estate investing space by combining free deal analysis tools with a fix-and-flip lending platform. It is a smart business model: give investors a free ARV calculator and comp tool, then offer them financing when they find a deal worth pursuing. For flippers specifically, the combination of analysis plus capital access makes Backflip an attractive starting point.

But Backflip’s analysis tools are built around one exit strategy: fix and flip (it also offers DSCR rental loans, but its site doesn’t describe rental cash-flow analysis). If you wholesale properties, hold rentals, or use BRRRR strategies, Backflip's tools become less useful. And regardless of your strategy, Backflip has no tools for finding buyers, marketing deals, or managing disposition — the process of actually selling your deal to an end buyer.

Deal Run covers all three exit strategies (flip, wholesale, rental) and adds the buyer-finding and deal marketing tools that Backflip does not offer.

What Backflip does well

Backflip has built a solid product for its specific niche. Here is what works.

• Free ARV and comp tools. Backflip offers a free comparable property search and ARV calculator. For investors who need a quick estimate before deciding whether to pursue a deal, the free tier removes the cost barrier entirely.
• Integrated lending. Backflip's real business is loans: short-term fix-and-flip loans and DSCR rental loans. The analysis tools serve as a funnel into those products. If you analyze a deal and decide to flip it, you can request a quote without leaving the app, and its site says there are no upfront lender fees.
• Mobile-friendly. Backflip's free app runs on iPhone, Android and the web, so you can analyze deals from your phone, which is valuable when you are at a property or driving for dollars and need a quick assessment.
• Clean interface. The design is modern and the user experience is polished. Backflip feels like a consumer tech product rather than the clunky interfaces that are common in real estate investing software.

For a flipper who needs quick analysis and is also looking for lending, Backflip delivers genuine value — especially at the free tier.

Where Backflip falls short

Flip-only focus

Backflip's analysis is designed around the fix-and-flip model. It does not have dedicated rental analysis (cash flow projections, cap rate calculations, buy-and-hold modeling) or wholesale-specific tools (assignment fee calculation, MAO for wholesale). If you wholesale deals or hold rentals, you need a different tool for those strategies.

No buyer finding

Backflip has no investor search capability. It cannot identify landlords or flippers operating near your property, rank them by activity, or show you who has been buying recently. Finding buyers is entirely outside the platform's scope.

No skip tracing

Even for the investors you identify on your own, Backflip has no skip tracing to find their phone numbers or email addresses. You need a separate provider for contact information.

No deal marketing or outreach

Backflip does not create shareable deal pages, send deal blast emails, or track who views your property listings. There is no email tool, no SMS capability, and no way to distribute your deal to potential buyers through the platform.

No deal pipeline

There is no pipeline to track deals from analysis through marketing, offers, and closing. For wholesalers or investors managing multiple simultaneous deals, this means relying on spreadsheets or a separate CRM.

Lending as the core business

Backflip's free tools exist to drive lending revenue. This is not inherently bad — it is a legitimate business model — but it means the analysis tools are always going to be secondary to the lending product. Feature development and investment will naturally prioritize lending features over analysis improvements.

Feature comparison

Who should use Backflip

Backflip is a good fit if you:

• Exclusively flip houses and do not wholesale or hold rentals
• Want free analysis tools and are also actively looking for flip financing
• Already have your own buyer relationships and do not need disposition tools
• Are evaluating deals for personal investment, not resale to other investors

Who should consider Deal Run

Deal Run makes more sense if you:

• Wholesale properties and need to find buyers after analyzing deals
• Use multiple exit strategies (flip, rental, wholesale) and want one tool for all of them
• Want to blast the deal to those investors from your own Gmail
• Want deal marketing pages that track views, clicks, and offer submissions
• Manage a deal pipeline and need to see all your active deals in one place

Deal Run is our product. It’s web and iPhone software for wholesalers and small investors, in all 50 states. Its steps are Details, Comps, Repairs, Max Offer, Package, Find Buyers and Blast. Analyze is $29/mo: deal analysis plus one disposition deal for the life of the account, with up to 100 skip-traced buyers. Analyze + Sell is $99/mo, or $83/mo billed annually: 15 disposition deals a month with 100 skip-traced buyers per deal. Or pay per deal: $2 to analyze, $20 with 100 buyers. It doesn’t lend money, send texts, build seller lead lists or run a dialer or direct mail. It’s made by Deal Run LLC in Houston, Texas; see the trust page and pricing.

Related comparisons