I need advice on how to handle my first real estate deal.

[Ebony Townsend]

Hi. My name is Ebony and I am new to real estate investing. I've made an offer on a few deals but was out bidded. Recently, I came across a property. The property is located 3 hours away from me. I am in Houston BTW. The property has 6 individual apartment homes on one lot. Each home is 476 Sq ft with a 15 sq porch. All homes are renting for $600 and that includes their utilities and they are all on month to month leases. Apparently, there is a waiting list to rent them. In addition to the 6 apartment homes, there are three empty lots being sold with it. This property is located in Corpus Christi. They were asking 180k. I offered 140k and they countered with 155k final offer, which I accepted.

Currently, I have the property under contract. They have given me a 30 day option period with 60 day close. Here is where my questions start. The property was owned by an older woman who recently passed away. It was heired to her grand child who does not want the property. The owner who passed kept very poor records. There are no rent rolls, no leases nothing! To make things more complex there are absolutely no other comps to compare it to in the area. So it would need a full appraisal to even see how much it is worth. I have not seen the property yet to estimate repairs as I have just placed it under contract and it is three hours away.

I have a few questions and need suggestions. All help is appreciated as this my first and apparently big deal.

What do you suggest I do during th 30 option period seeing that the property is 3 hours away?

Would a hard money lender or conventional leander be best for this deal? I have the 25% down payment but it would eat up my liquid capital.

How much do you think something like this is worth based on the numbers given?

Should I take out a loan just for the property and just continue to lease it out? If it has a lot of equity refinance and pull out cash for repairs and renovate the units as they become vacant?

Or should I take out a loan for the property and repairs upfront and try to renovate all of the units at the same time, which would require me to get the tenants to move and then raise the rent with new leases?

Last question. What should I do with the three empty lots that come with it? They are all adjacent to the property.