Where to start...?

[Marvin Meng]

Hi all,

I've owned rental properties for a little over 10 years but have actually been an investor for a little over one. (By that I mean that previous nine I did pretty much everything wrong; lack of focus, directed effort, working in my business vice on it, etc). Now I'm ready to get serious but I'm still having trouble getting out of the gate.

Last December I purchased a fourplex and a duplex together. Shortly after that I discovered BP. Aside from the value of the information here, if nothing else it's a great source of inspiration for me to come back to.

I'm mostly focusing on single family (if multi comes up I'll happily look at it but it tends to go high - feeding frenzy - in my market). Everything I hear on BP says if you find a good deal the money will take care of itself. I'm having trouble believing that. I've found one good deal and have barely enough for the standard 20% down. After that it needs what I estimate conservatively $11K of repairs/renovations. Asking price is $84,4 and it would probably rent for $1000 to $1100. I'm thinking of offering $61K which would leave me with enough money to handle the repairs.

Conversely if I flipped it it would need more like $30K in repairs and probably sell for $125. (My realtor thinks it would sell for $135-150 but I'd rather not be optimistic).

So... Any suggestions regarding this deal or how I should proceed in general would be greatly welcome! Have any of you had the experience that once you find a good deal the money takes care of itself (ie. investors are open to working with you on viable terms)? Would you make an offer (just to control the property) before you knew exactly where every penny was coming from?

Thank you!