SBuying a distressed property in need of repairs

[Lavada Lindsey]

Hello. I am a new real estate investor. I just bought my first investment property a few months ago. This home will be a rental property. My fiance and I are currently looking for a home we can live in. We're looking at REOs because we know with a little bit of sweat equity we can get the best bang for our buck. We'd also like to cut our expenses so I can leave my full time job and concentrate on real estate in the future. Buying our first property was easy. We found the property on hubzu, had the highest bid, and it was ours. This time around we're looking on Zillow and Realtor.com. We find homes but naturally there are always something wrong with them. When I asked the realtor who was helping me about putting in an offer for a bank owned property his answers are always very vague; I don't think he knows much about dealing with foreclosed properties. For instance, I once told him that we were looking at a property and that we know that the pool and the cement in the backyard needs work. I asked if it made sense to put in an offer contingent on an inspection and then ask for those costs to be covered by the seller (the bank) or if we should estimate how much the costs would be and make an offer based on that. He simply responded, "It's a bank owned property being sold strictly "as is" buyer is responsible for all repairs and even CO's." Needless to say, I was quite disappointed with his answer (or lack thereof). Can someone tell me what kind of strategy generally works for you when you're trying to buy a bank owned property that needs repairs?