I do plan on investing by next year 2025, but I do want to increase my knowledge a little bit more and possibly find a mentor and work with one just to get my feet through the door, and start investing by next year. 

Because the 0% interest rate was coming to an end on the first of my credit cards through Fund & Grow, I sought a second round of funding through them so as to maintain a 0% interest payment on the funds going forward...still had to make the minimum payment going forward which at that time had accumulated to about $1000 per month plus property yard maintenance and taxes.Hoping that Clayton would do some of his magic and get the house built, screen some qualified tenants and get some cash flow going to be able to satisfy the payback of the credit cards until such time that I could get the new house independently appraised and financed through a traditional mortgage which the cash flow would have easily covered according to what Clayton promises in his podcast relating to the new construction builds. 

Get you feet your wet and just have a learning mindset on your first one. 

Actually,  $7,000 is what the p/t painter quoted--I hadn't asked her to price the radiators, so in my post I rounded up to $10,000 to include them and other incidentals. 

I have a year-round renter in the basement as well - it’s not converted as a duplex officially, but has two exits and street level entry.

We were told just a year ago that we could scrape part of land and build up a certain amt of feet above BFE.

-if you buy something (just using round numbers here) for 100K, and spend 50K to fix up, and you're hoping it appraises at 210, and the appraiser values it at 140... you're going to get 90-105 out. 

I've heard bad things about the area and am getting cold feet, but would like to hear from some locals regarding whether these fears are warranted.

Many tenants limit their searches to round numbers; I would drop the rent to $1495 and see what new activity the market generates.

Being a newbie at this, I have to start somewhere and get my feet wet, right?