You can't have your cake and eat it too.

It's a BONUS, ICING ON THE CAKE, MAGICAL. 

The icing on the cake was the $2000 water bill we got stuck with.

(and again, I'll say that I'm an investor first and a realtor second) Now, one thing to always keep in mind is that its not all that hard to get licensed as a realtor, its not a piece of cake, but its not that bad.

I am from Anaheim, CA.

but then again, the few of those sweet santa cruz mountains, make it understandable, I guess you can have your cake and eat it too, you just better have $3.5 Million +.great that you are giving yourself a deadline to make your goals happen."

Instead go by the existing numbers for the meal (as long as tenant history is good and payments are stable) and then projected rent increases with improvements will be icing on the cake but not necessary to the success of the investment..

So, they want to have their cake and eat it, too.I would not touch it with a 10-foot pole, but that's just me1) I learned the hard way not to do business with friends and family.

I can run numbers, cash flow analysis etc- believe it or not- even with a 5-20% down I have been finding nuggets here and there that cash flow well- but that which I do not have the down payment for at the moment- he's gotten some passive investors interested in multi's with my analyses for investments.I am also interested in flips- I run into some great flip possibilities that come out as I scour- (duplexes in eagle rock, anaheim,etc).

The seller sucked out all the cash flow and repaired next to nothing but when they go to sell they can't eat there cake too and want a premium price.This is a basic example of many sellers looking for a sucker buyer that is inexperienced and doesn't have proper representation that will get taken advantage of.The lender giving you a loan will look at DSCR ratios and cash flow etc. going in but will not account for near future repairs and could care less you make money as long as you service your debt tot he bank.