These higher and unplanned fees, delays, plus the additional work sometimes required can break your budgets and make deals unprofitable.  

I've found lots of dead or live bodies but all were critters, mice, squirrels, rats, snakes, all kinds of insects, ground hog, possum, skunk, and even found a dead cat.

My first "rehab and flip", was an "Ugly House"As some other investors do, I named the house, "the Dump"It was empty for 8 years, the roof leaked, (a new roof was put on about 5 years before I purchased it) the plumbing and heating froze and burst, squirrels and mice, etc., had gotten into the house, and chewed on the electrical wires, etc.It was a complete rehab, right down to the studs.

Here are a few items I found squirreled away in some real estate notes I had taken years ago: 1.

The monthly rental income covered my mortgage, allowing me to squirrel away some $$.

Now is a perfect time to be squirreling money away to use when the market around here inevitably dips.

I'm assuming it is squirrells in the house.

My house is appraised in the mid $700s too...and not really anything special so ~$500k budget may not get you there, but hey...even blind squirrels find nuts right?...

Airy, south philly, brewerytown): 100-120k ($100-120/sf KINDA)C Class (ex: East Germantown, olney, most of Cobbs/Kingsessing outside of what is right by baltimore and over the tracks from squirrel hill) 90-110k depending on condition Cosmetic jobs take the bottom value and maybe put a new range 20k lower.

I recently completed a refi on my primary residence and am now attempting to use some leverage from the home we have along with some extra I am squirreling away to get my first deal rolling.