Buying "wholesale" property to live in

[Rafael Ro]

Hello all,

This is my first post here, after reading and learning a ton from the community. Thank you all so much for sharing! 

I have considered everything from turnkey rentals, flipping, BRRRing, multi unit apartment buildings etc, and I plan to jump in soon and get the ball rolling with my first BRRR. But before that, I would like to buy a house for our family. We're in... CA.

We have set a budget and have been looking at every listing in the areas we're interested in obsessively during the last 3-4 months. I'm finding some that are pretty close, but for the most part we're typically about 10-15% under what the market price is. 

That said, I've also been seeing a lot of flips happening. Houses that were sold at about 25% less a few months ago, showing up back on the market renovated. 

So I decided that I'd like to do the same. I'm not looking for a house with major problems - instead I would like to find something that needs a good amount of work (so many buyers would shy away from it) but that is fine to move in, for now. 

The idea is that I would buy it and then start fixing it up as we go, to bring it up to where we'd want it to be at our pace. The issue is that I do not have that kind of cash laying around.. I can only get it through a mortgage. And that's also why it would need to be at a state where one could move-in (even if very old and worn) -- most of our money would go towards the down payment leaving little room for renovations. 

The question I have for you all is this -- do you think that what I'm looking for is possible and a good way to go at it? If I could pick and choose the exact specs of the property I'm looking for then it would be about 10% over my budget. But if that same property needed work then it would likely be right around my budget. I just haven't found it yet so I'm trying to figure out if going through wholesalers may make sense. 

I really appreciate your help here and any resources you could share!

Thank you in advance!