How listing risk flags roll up on a flip

A listing risk flag is a note. It comes from the year built, the lot size, the living area, or a phrase in the listing text. It is not a repair line. It does not change the maximum allowable offer, the selected rehab tier, or the ARV. The offer is computed from ARV and the selected rehab cost, using the published profit, closing, and holding rates, before the flags are read. The flags are not an argument to the offer. Several flags then collapse into one overall level, and the severities of those flags become the risk factor. The deal score weights that factor at 20 percent. The weighted slice is not the deal score.

The deal scorer names each flag on its own card. This page is the rollup: the exact edges, how the flags combine, and the factor those severities produce. It does not rebuild the inspect-and-price list for an old house. When a flag only names a system, the price belongs on that list and on the scope of work. This page has no city price table.

Where a flag comes from

Age is the calendar year of the analysis minus the year built. A missing year built is treated as that same calendar year, so the age is 0. An age of 0 adds no age flag. The houses below are computed as of calendar year 2026, so a house built in 1940 is 86 years old. In a later calendar year the same house is older by the years that have passed. The cuts below are on age, not on a fixed year.

Listing text is the description plus the feature list, joined into one string and lowercased. Capital letters do not matter. The check is a substring. It looks for a sequence of characters. It is not a parser, it does not understand negation, and a flag does not mean an inspector confirmed the defect. A sentence that says the house is not on septic still contains the letters septic, so the septic flag still fires. A feature is searched the same way as the description. If the description is empty and one feature says septic, the flag still fires.

Age cuts, including the years that look wrong

Older than 75, which means 76 or more, is a structural flag at high severity. Older than 50, which means 51 through 75, is a structural flag at medium severity. Older than 30, which means 31 through 50, is a maintenance flag at low severity. The maintenance note is about the roof, the HVAC, and the water heater nearing the end of a typical life. It is still a note, not a bid to replace them.

The edges are strict because the cut is older than, not older than or equal to. Age 75 is medium, not high. Age 50 is low, not medium. Age 30 has no age flag. Age 31 is the first maintenance flag. Age 51 is the first structural medium. Age 76 is the first structural high. A house at age 30, 50, or 75 sits on the older side of the previous band, not the next one.

A second age rule is separate from those bands. If the age is older than 25, and the listing text does not contain updated, renovated, remodeled, new roof, new hvac, new plumbing, or new electrical, the property gets a hidden-costs flag at medium severity. Age 25 does not get this flag. Age 26 can. The words are searched after lowercasing, so Updated and NEW ROOF count. Any one of those phrases suppresses the hidden-costs flag. None of them suppresses the age-band flag. An 86-year-old house whose listing says renovated still gets the structural high flag. It does not get the hidden-costs flag.

A house can carry both. Age 86 with none of the update words gets structural high and hidden-costs medium. Age 60 with none of the update words gets structural medium and hidden-costs medium. Age 40 with none of the update words gets maintenance low and hidden-costs medium. Age 26 through 30 with none of the update words gets hidden-costs medium and no age-band flag, because 30 is not older than 30. A missing year built, treated as age 0, gets neither.

Phrase cuts and size cuts

Septic is medium. The text must contain the letters septic. That is the whole rule. There is no second phrase and no age gate.

Flood is high. The text must contain flood zone, flood plain, or fema flood. The word flood alone does not match. The single word floodplain does not match, because the phrase that matches has a space between flood and plain. A hyphenated flood-zone does not match either. The space, or the letters fema flood, is the cut.

Well water is low. The text must contain well water or private well. The word well alone does not match. A house that is described as well kept, with no well water and no private well, does not get this flag.

Foundation is high. The text must contain foundation issue, settling, crack in foundation, or foundation repair. The word foundation alone does not match. A listing that praises a foundation and never uses those four phrases does not get the foundation flag from the word foundation. Settling is a substring, so the word unsettling contains it and fires the flag. The check does not know that the sentence was not about the structure.

Lead or asbestos is high, and it has an age gate. The age must be older than 40, and the text must contain asbestos or lead. Age 40 is not enough, even when the listing says lead or asbestos. Age 41 with either word is enough. Older than 40 with neither word does not get this flag. The structural flag from an older age band is a different flag and does not depend on those words. The letters lead also match inside a longer word, so leading on a house older than 40 can fire the environmental flag. The check is not a dictionary of defects.

Lot size is low. The lot must be above 0 and under 3,000 square feet. Exactly 3,000 is not flagged. A missing lot, stored as 0, is not flagged. 2,999 square feet is flagged. 3,001 is not. The flag is about a small lot, not about a lot that was left blank.

Living area is medium. The area must be above 0 and under 800 square feet. Exactly 800 is not flagged. A missing living area, stored as 0, is not flagged. 799 square feet is flagged. 801 is not. A 1,200 square foot house does not get this flag.

How several flags become one overall level

The overall level looks at counts. It does not add the severities. Low flags do not move the level up to medium or high. They still add 1 each to the factor weight. Read the rules in this order, and stop at the first one that fits.

No flags at all: the overall level is low. Two or more high flags: the overall level is high. One high flag plus one or more medium flags: the overall level is high. One high flag and no medium flag: the overall level is medium, not high. A low flag beside that single high flag does not push it to high. Three or more medium flags and no high flag: the overall level is medium. One or two medium flags, with or without low flags: the overall level is medium. Only low flags: the overall level is low, no matter how many low flags there are.

That last split is why the level and the factor can disagree. Two high flags and three medium flags can produce the same factor score and different levels. The level is the count rule above. The factor is the weighted sum in the next section. Do not convert a level back into a score by a table of low, medium, and high. The product does not do that.

How severities become the risk factor

Each flag has a weight. Low is 1. Medium is 2. High is 3. Add the weights. Start from 9. Subtract 0.6 times that sum. If the result is below 1, the factor is 1. Round to one decimal place. A property with no flags skips the subtraction and the factor score is 9. A weight sum of 0 would land on 9 as well. The floor of 1 is the other end: once the weights reach 14, 9 minus 0.6 times the sum is below 1, and the factor stays 1.

The deal score multiplies this factor by 20 percent and adds the other four factors. Those are price spread, ARV confidence, rehab scope, and exit flexibility. This page does not compute them. A factor of 4.2 contributes 0.84 points toward the deal score. A factor of 8.4 contributes 1.68. A factor of 9 contributes 1.8. Those slices are not the deal score. Quote the factor as the risk factor, and quote the deal score only after the other four factors are known.

An invented 1940 house

The house in this section is invented. It is not a listing and it is not a closed sale. No city is attached to it. Calendar year 2026, year built 1940, so the age is 86. Living area 1,200 square feet. Lot 2,500 square feet. The description says "Septic system in the back yard". It does not contain the update words, a flood phrase, a foundation phrase, or lead or asbestos.

Age 86 is older than 75, so the structural flag is high. Age 86 is also older than 25, and the description has none of the update words, so the hidden-costs flag is medium. The description contains septic, so the septic flag is medium. The lot is above 0 and under 3,000, so the lot-size flag is low. Living area 1,200 is not under 800, so there is no size flag. There is no flood phrase, no foundation phrase, and no lead or asbestos word, so those flags stay off. Age 86 is older than 40, and that is not enough for the environmental flag without the word.

The flags are structural high, hidden-costs medium, septic medium, and lot-size low. One high flag plus a medium flag means the overall level is high. The weights are 3 plus 2 plus 2 plus 1, which is 8. 0.6 times 8 is 4.8. 9 minus 4.8 is 4.2, so the factor score is 4.2. Times 20 percent, the risk slice is 0.84 points of the deal score. The maximum allowable offer is unchanged. The selected rehab tier is unchanged. The ARV is unchanged. To move the offer you change the repair number after you price the septic and anything else the walk actually found. The flags do not do that subtraction for you.

The empty case and a single small lot

A second invented house is built in 2026, so the age is 0. The lot is exactly 3,000 square feet. The living area is exactly 800 square feet. The description and the feature list are empty. Age 0 misses every age band, the hidden-costs rule, and the lead rule. Exactly 3,000 misses the lot rule. Exactly 800 misses the living-area rule. Empty text misses every phrase. There are no flags, so the overall level is low and the factor score is 9. The risk slice is 1.8 points of the deal score. A blank year built, a lot stored as 0, and a living area stored as 0, with the same empty text, is also the empty case. Missing is not a small lot and missing is not a small house.

A third invented house is newer, built in 2016, so the age in 2026 is 10. Living area is 1,200 square feet. The lot is 2,500 square feet. The description is "Bright rooms and a fenced yard", which matches none of the phrases and none of the update words. Age 10 adds no age flag and no hidden-costs flag. The only flag is the lot. Only low flags means the overall level is low. The weight sum is 1. 9 minus 0.6 is 8.4, so the factor score is 8.4. The risk slice is 1.68 points of the deal score. A second low flag, such as well water on this same house, would keep the overall level at low and would drop the factor again, by another 0.6, to 7.8. The 8.4 figure is one low flag, not every low overall level.

One high flag, two high flags, and three medium flags

Take the 2016 house and change only the text and the lot. Lot exactly 3,000, so the lot flag is off. Description: "The side yard is in a flood zone." That phrase is a flood flag at high severity. Age 10 adds nothing else. One high flag and no medium flag means the overall level is medium, not high. The weight sum is 3. 0.6 times 3 is 1.8. 9 minus 1.8 is 7.2. The factor score is 7.2. Add the 2,500 square foot lot back and the flags are one high and one low. The overall level is medium still. The weight sum is 4, and the factor score is 6.6. The low flag changed the factor and did not change the level.

Add one more sentence to the flood-zone house, with the lot back at 3,000 so only the text flags remain: "Seller completed foundation repair." That phrase is a second high flag. Two high flags means the overall level is high. The weights are 3 plus 3, which is 6. 0.6 times 6 is 3.6. 9 minus 3.6 is 5.4. The factor score is 5.4.

A fourth invented house shows the same 5.4 with a different level. Year built 1998, so the age in 2026 is 28. Living area 700 square feet. Lot 5,000 square feet. Description: "Septic system behind the house", with none of the update words and no flood, foundation, lead, or asbestos phrase. Age 28 is not older than 30, so there is no age-band flag. Age 28 is older than 25, so hidden-costs is medium. Septic is medium. Living area 700 is under 800, so the size flag is medium. The lot is not under 3,000. Three medium flags and no high flag means the overall level is medium. The weights are 2 plus 2 plus 2, which is 6, and the factor score is 5.4. Same factor as the two high flags. Different overall level. That is the rollup doing two different jobs.

Price the thing the flag only names

This page names the flag and the severity. It does not print a national price for septic replacement, flood insurance, abatement, or foundation repair, and it has no city price table. A substring is not a scope. Septic in a sentence can be a tank you have not opened. Foundation repair in a sentence can be a hairline someone already fixed or a wall that still needs piers. The flag cannot tell those apart.

Put the item on the pre-1960 rehab lines as an inspect-and-price line, including when the house is newer and the flag came from a phrase rather than from age. Put the same line on the flip scope of work so the repair column has a place for the figure once a specialist writes it for this house. The offer, which ignores the flags, is the MAO calculator. Raise the repair field there after you have that figure. Leaving the repair field where it was is how a high overall level and an unchanged offer can both be correct on the same house.

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