No Possession, rehab costs, pitching to investors

[Sarah Miller]

Hello!  A lot of random questions in this post... I've searched the forums but can't find exactly what I'm after so here it goes!

1. What are some strategies you use when shopping for a foreclosure property or sheriff sale?  Do you have a formula you use? Do you mainly just rely on area/school district/neighborhood/comps to get you pointed to the ones worth digging into more?

2. How do you estimate rehab costs for said property if you do not have possession until the sale? Would a 25-30% additional minimum rehab built in "buffer" be a good start?  I plan on obviously visiting the property and doing as much publicly available research as possible (permits pulled, work done, zoning issues, etc) My purchase price will be somewhere between $50k-80k which is a considerably good foreclosure in my area and a 25-30% buffer I figure would be enough to cover major purchases if needed, plumbing, electrical work, appliances, landscaping and cosmetics.

3. I want to pitch to some private investors for the strategy of just having the money for liquidity purposes, not actually partnering on a specific property (maybe an interest only loan for 12 months).  Would it be a good idea to use an actual potential deal in my pitch to give them an idea of my work? Or is it better just to give them a general overview of my work without letting them too deep into the weeds? Is there a better strategy?

As always! Thanks!