Here's an example of flip using somewhat simplified numbers to help illustrate the point.$100,000 Purchase Price$50,000 Renovations Budget (including, we will suppose, six months of carrying costs from close to close)$200,000 ARVSo we've got $50,000 in equity to build. 

I am not beating you down but those are just not achievable without a very large cash/assets/income starting position unless you have decades to burn.I would love for someone (not me) to run a scenario like this using realistic lending/purchase/refi/acquisition numbers so we can see it illustrated on paper for a gut check. 

  * * * Please Note that I am NOT saying you should advertise on a billboard, this is just an illustration to show the trade off between time and money. * * *)And "driving for dollars" would be an example of minimal money (just gas $) but lots of time.  

I just don't see how you would be required to add square footage to get the value up, unless you're buying a house that is in good enough condition and up to date enough to where there isn't much of a value add opportunity.To help illustrate this...

Then, the cumulative investment returns of all owned properties are conveniently illustrated in our Real Estate Wealth Building Analysis Summary report.The analysis will cover the four- (4) primary engines impacting investment real estate returns (pre-tax cash flow, income tax implication, debt/loan impactonyieldandanyprojectedappreciationwillbefactored).

This was a deal we closed that perfectly illustrates how everyone can win with an Escrow holdback.

The Title Co. doesn't check for them and, as illustrated, they can cause major headaches and become expensive.

In total debt, we have only about 20k more than I did the day I bought my second primary.I say all this to illustrate that its okay to start slow.

What we found is illustrated below.Below a certain rent, the majority of the tenants stay 1 year or less.

The sellers' slowness or unwillingness to sell at numbers that pencil out as an investment are great illustrators of why it's a great time to sell (so long as you don't have to redeploy that capital into the same asset class) . . .