First Flip/Rebab Deal Concerns

[Chris Pizzulo]

Hi, I'm new to real estate investing (and Biggerpockets...pic & profile coming soon...) and I have a potential deal that I'm looking at that I believe is a good opportunity but would love to get the opinions of some of you more experienced investors.

I'm in Greensboro, NC and looking at a foreclosure which is a single family 3 bed 1.5 bath unit. The property was listed on MLS for $71,900 and based on comps found on Zillow, and the opinion of a real estate agent I'm working with, I believe the ARV is $90-95k. I estimate it will require ~$12k in repairs. I made an offer of $51k which was initially not accepted because the bank accepted another buyers offer. After a few weeks we were told the orig. buyer was unwilling to sign the required bank addendums and the bank is asking if I am still interested in buying the property.

I feel pretty confident in my repair estimate and even with a few surprises I have a healthy enough margin to still make a few bucks. My concern which is causing me to second guess the deal is that directly behind the property, ~150ft from the house at the bottom of a hill, there is a busy train track. Because it's down a hill and there is foliage at the back of the lot you can't see the train but after 3 visits I've heard it each time and it's fairly loud. Other houses in the same neighborhood, the same distance from the tracks, have sold for as much or more than the comps I've looked at but I'm afraid it could sit on the market for too long or I'd need to come down on price too much to sell as quickly as I'd like. How concerned should I be about this? Is it a deal killer or worth a shot? Any advice, comments, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.