Help - what am I missing analysing a deal on MLS

[Damon Owen]

I currently live in Australia, but I'll be moving to KC MO next year and should be in a position to invest in real estate. I've been drinking from the fire hose of information regarding wholesaling, and fixing and flipping over the past year. Obviously I'll need to be good at is analysing deals, so I plan to analyse a couple of deals a day from craigslist list or one of the listing sites. I thought from what I had been listening to and reading I should be okay, but I get the feeling I'm missing a lot when the first listing I see appears to be a deal if I could get it for a few thousand below asking (based on some assumptions).

Can you please tell me what I'm missing and/or should be looking for with the below "deal".

12500 E 34th Ter S,Independence, MO 64055

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Independence-...

List Price: $39,900

ARV: $80,000

Max Allowable Offer: $36,000 (70% ARV $56,000 minus repair cost $20,000)

Total in the deal: $60,000 (MAO + repairs + transactional costs $4,000) 

Profit: $20,000

Now that I do the numbers I can see that if it does actually require 20k repairs (mine above was a guess, tough to do a repair estimate from Australia) for a potential profit of 20K there's not that much in it.

All thoughts and opinions are very welcome.

[David Dachtera]

Well, just judging from the pictures on Zillow, $20,000 is cheap fix-and-flip on that one. You've got cracked plaster which could indicate a larger underlying issue. It's a full paint-and-carpet fix up, for sure, but those cracks bother me. The peeling paint on the window in the back of the house could be a moisture issue. Hard to tell without inspecting in person.

That one might actually go better as a buy-fix-hold rental.

My $0.02...