The 5 Best Business Credit Cards for Landlords, House Flippers & Rental Property [2023]

When it comes to real estate investing, a majority of folks decide to stick to rental properties or house-flipping as their go-to strategy.

These 2 popular strategies have pros and cons, but regardless of which one you fall under, this is one of the best ways to generate income off of your assets.

Whether you’re a rental property investor working primarily with tenants or a house flipper primarily working with contractors and skilled laborers, you’ll want to have the best business credit card to make your business management seamless.

In this article, we’ll be walking you through our top picks for the best business credit cards for house flippers and landlords.

What To Look for in a Business Credit Card for House Flippers & Landlords

As a house flipper or landlord, you will incur different types of expenses throughout the course of the year. As you can imagine, house flippers (at least those who fix properties up before selling them again) generally have larger expenses on a yearly basis.

House flippers must often pay for large, singular expenses, often in excess of $10,000 per transaction.

So what we looked for in a great business card for house flippers is a large spending limit, a big spend bonus, business purchase protections, and bonus rewards on as many spending categories as possible.

Landlords with rental property will have to pay for expenses like advertising rental listings, materials and supplies, and small touch-up repair projects in between tenants.

A large credit limit or spending limit is likely not an essential credit card benefit for landlords, but it’s still great to have.

The 5 Best Business Credit Cards for House Flippers & Landlords — Summary

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The 3 Best Overall Business Cards for House Flippers and Landlords

One thing is certain: house flippers and landlords have varied expenses at different times of the year for different reasons. So how can a business owner like yourself manage this?

Well, the first approach you can take is to get a business credit card that offers huge rewards on many bonus categories. The second approach is to get a business credit card that offers great rewards on all bonus categories.

Regardless of your approach, you’ll want to use a card that can help you manage your expenses and ideally has a high spending limit to help you scale your business headache-free.

Whether you’re paying contractors, buying office supplies, or putting ads in the local newspaper, you’ll want to have a solid business card in your wallet. So, let’s get into our favorite business cards for house flippers and landlords!

1. The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a huge welcome bonus offer of up to 170,000 points with the Amex Business Platinum. The current public offer is 120,000 points. (This targeted offer was independently researched and may not be available to all applicants.)

Our first (and favorite) business card for house flippers and landlords is the Amex Business Platinum card, and it’s one of the most well-known cards in the world.

The Amex Business Platinum card will earn you 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels at Amex Travel. So if you also have out-of-state properties, you can earn points on those business trips. The card also earns 1.5x on eligible purchases in key business categories, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more everywhere else (up to $2 million in purchases per calendar year).

And speaking of travel, this card offers the most incredible travel benefits of any single card in the world. To start, you’ll be able to access the American Express Global Lounge Collection, which includes:

• Centurion Lounges
• Delta Sky Clubs (when flying Delta the same day)
• Escape Lounges — The Centurion Studio Partner
• International American Express Centurion Lounges
• Plaza Premium Lounges
• Priority Pass lounges (upon enrollment)
• Select Lufthansa Lounges (when flying Lufthansa the same day)
• Select Virgin Clubhouse Lounges

And just to drive the point home, the Chase Sapphire Reserve^®, regarded as a competitor card, only offers access to Priority Pass lounges.

Other travel benefits include access to Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy Gold status upon enrollment, a 35% rebate when using Pay with Points (up to 1,000,000 points back per calendar year), and a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit.

Cardmembers get up to $200 annual airline fee credit, up to $400 in statement credits for U.S. purchases with Dell (2 equal credits of $200 semi-annually), up to $360 in Indeed credits, up to $150 in Adobe credits, $189 in CLEAR Plus credit, and $120 in wireless credits.

However, one of our favorite perks is the bonus earning structure. As mentioned, you’ll earn 1.5x for eligible purchases on your card made at U.S. construction material and hardware suppliers, at U.S. electronic goods retailers and software and cloud system providers, and at U.S. shipping providers as well as on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more everywhere else.

One of the biggest benefits of this card type for business owners is the absence of any preset spending limits. What that means is that American Express will use software to figure out how much of a spending limit to give you, and this changes regularly. This is in contrast with a traditional credit card, where your credit limit is set in stone.

American Express offers some of the highest spending limits in the industry if it believes you have the means to pay off all your bills. This can be instrumental in managing or scaling your house flipping or rental property business.

Of course, the Amex Business Platinum card also offers the ability to “plug-in” your QuickBooks account to integrate your business expenses for seamless accounting and bookkeeping.

Why We Like Earning Amex Membership Rewards Points

When you have the Amex Business Platinum card, the points you will accumulate are known as Amex Membership Rewards points.

These points are incredibly valuable — in fact, they are the most valuable points according to our valuations, easily worth 2+ cents per point!

Part of the value comes from the ease with which you can earn these points. Part of the value comes from the flexibility of redeeming points because you can use them for statement credits, charity, travel bookings through Amex Travel, gift cards, and more.

But what gives these points the most value is the ability to transfer your points to the American Express travel partners for phenomenal redemptions like Singapore Airlines first class. This is an easy way to get immense value out of your points.

2. Ink Business Unlimited^® Credit Card

Our runner-up best credit card is the Ink Business Unlimited card, which offers a unique value proposition for house flippers and landlords. This business credit card offers an excellent welcome bonus with easy-to-achieve spending requirements.

One of the selling points of this card is the fact that you will earn 1.5% cash-back on all business purchases, regardless of the spending category. These rewards are also uncapped.

In addition, your 1.5% cash-back is convertible to 1.5x Chase Ultimate Rewards points per $1 if you hold a Chase credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards points such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

Also, there’s an introductory 0% APR benefit you can enjoy when signing up for this card, which is designed to help you avoid interest fees on balances for your business.

Also, this card has no-additional-fee employee cards, primary rental car insurance, zero liability fraud protection, purchase protection, and extended warranty coverage as other important benefits.

Why We Like Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Chase and Amex compete vehemently in the rewards landscape.

The Ink Business Unlimited card by itself doesn’t earn Ultimate Rewards points, but if you couple this card with an Ultimate Rewards card, you can easily double your return on spending by converting your cash-back rewards to Ultimate Rewards points.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth around 2 cents per point, which makes them the second-most valuable behind Amex Membership Rewards.

However, Chase has some super-easy ways to redeem Ultimate Rewards points for great value, including cash-back, goods, gift cards, charitable donations, travel booked through the Chase travel portal, and Pay Yourself Back.

Our personal favorite way to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to the Chase travel partners and redeem them for flights like Emirates first class!

3. American Express^® Business Gold Card

Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a huge welcome bonus offer of up to 110,000 points with the Amex Business Gold card! The current public offer is 70,000 points. (This targeted offer was independently researched and may not be available to all applicants.)

The Amex Business Gold card has been one of our favorite cards for many years. Ever since this card got a facelift in rewards, it’s been a no-brainer for most business owners, including house flippers and landlords.

The Amex Business Gold card earns 4x Membership Rewards points on 2 of your top categories from this list each month (up to $150,000 per calendar year):

• Airfare purchased from airlines
• U.S. purchases for advertising in select media
• U.S. purchases made from select technology providers of computer hardware, software, and cloud solutions
• U.S. purchases at gas stations
• U.S. purchases at restaurants
• U.S. purchases for shipping

And the best part of this card is that your 2 bonus categories are automatically selected for you every month so you don’t have to worry about figuring out which categories to choose — you’ll rest assured that you’ll max out your rewards in these categories.

Hot Tip: If you maxed out your 4x points, you’d earn 600,000 Amex points, which is worth around $13,200! Couple that with a nice welcome bonus and you’ll have tons of points before you know it.

This card doesn’t have a preset spending limit, which means you can scale up your expenses and businesses without worrying about a hard credit limit every month. Plus, spending limits on this card are known to be significantly higher than normal credit cards.

You can add up to 99 additional employee cards with a yearly fee of $50 for the first employee card (and no extra fees after that; rates and fees).

2 Alternative Business Credit Cards for House Flippers & Landlords

Having options in life is important, and this includes business credit cards.

We’ve made our opinions very clear on why the top 3 business credit cards above are great fits for house flippers and landlords. However, if you’re looking for other options, you’ll want to read this next section.

1. Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card

The Ink Business Preferred card is a very popular credit card for business owners, and it is our top entry in alternative choices for flippers and landlords.

This card offers a huge welcome bonus and 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards points on your first $150,000 spent every account cardmember year on these business categories:

• Travel
• Shipping purchases
• Internet, cable, and phone services
• Advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines

Notably, the Ink Business Preferred card earns Ultimate Rewards points directly, which means you don’t need to have another Chase card to earn these points.

It also earns 5x points on Lyft through March 2025. Once you’ve earned these points, you can transfer them to partner airlines and hotels or use them for gift cards, cash-back, charity, Pay Yourself Back, and more.

You’ll enjoy no foreign transaction fees, travel insurance, primary rental car coverage, amazing cell phone protection insurance, purchase protection, and extended warranty protection.

2. The Blue Business^® Plus Credit Card from American Express

The Amex Blue Business Plus card is one of our favorites because it earns 2x Membership Rewards points on everyday business purchases on the first $50,000 spent every calendar year (1x thereafter) with no need to keep track of bonus categories — all for no annual fee.

You’ll also find a 0% introductory APR benefit (as shown in the table above), plus no-annual-fee employee cards, and the ability to access Amex’s famous Membership Rewards program without an annual fee (rates and fees).

Bottom Line: We absolutely love this card, and we’d recommend it wholeheartedly to both house flippers and landlords, but particularly landlords, since they tend to have lower yearly expenses.

Final Thoughts

House flippers and landlords need to think strategically about business finances, and a big chunk of that is having the right business credit card.

If you’re a house flipper or a landlord investing in real estate, you’ll want to look for a card that enables you to make large business transactions and offers great rewards and important benefits.

Our favorite choices are the Amex Business Platinum card, the Ink Business Unlimited card, and the Amex Business Gold card. For alternatives, consider the Ink Business Preferred card and the Amex Blue Business Plus card.

Whether you’re looking for travel perks, 5x bonus categories, lower annual fees, or simple earning structures, there’s bound to be a card option that fits your needs.

For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express^® Business Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Blue Business^® Plus Credit Card from American Express, click here.