Lehigh valley is rough. prices are so so but so are values. tough to get out on the refi if you dont buy correctly. that's in any market.... the days of throwing lipstick on are over if you want a good appraisal. build a team. find people you like working with in the areas you want to work in.

You are going to cost yourself so much money, and time (time = more money).......I'd strongly suggest that you get over your aversion to loans and take one on for a small, medium distressed flip and get a good GC to help you put lipstick on it, then sell it for a little bit of profit.Now you will have some experience and a much larger comfort level with the whole deal. 

Say it takes you 1 month to do a lipstick flip and make $30k.

And if the business doesn’t CASH FLOW.. you bought a pig with lip stick.4) NEVER take YOUR cash out of YOUR pocket unless you KNOW that you’re going to get it all back in under three years.

Nicholas First I want to thank you for all of the help you've been providing to so many people here on Bigger Pockets this string of messages is a huge wealth of knowledge all in itself.I know one of the biggest mistakes you've mentioned that people make is the failure to establish an in service date for the rental property early, I may have made this mistake but I want to check to see if you think I'm technically covered or not.I closed on a property in October and the house overall is a solid property, just lipstick and polish needed for the most part to get it up to speed.

A higher price needs to be based on value added, your name on title isn't a value add, neither are easy buying terms, anyone should be able to put lipstick on a pig before they sell it, that can add value!

My friends I talked to after he visited said his estimates were high and all I needed was to put lipstick on a pig to make it rentable.

Those fast flips are obvious since they kept a crummy layout-why bother with "the lipstick on the pig" approach?

interesting to learn a little 'lipstick on a pig' can improve selling prospects.Thanks for sharing

It could just be some lipstick on a pig and you still have a number of uncovered issues.Happy Investing!