The money from the hard money lender was not going to be available in time to meet the seller's deadline (I'd already paid him $500 for a two-week extension), so I cashed in my IRA and borrowed money from my parents to buy the house.

I have been doing an extensive amount of research and I am also new to the real estate business.

Last week we had a contractor add on a 10ft extension to our driveway.

Previous project management experience, networking extensively, and estimating everything conservatively have served us well so far, but that will vary from person to person.

If you invest in a value-add deal you may have it all turned around and refinanced in 12-18 months and then use the refi proceeds to pay the taxes which will only be due in April of the next year or even further out if you file for extension.

(This from someone who has looked extensively into using 401(K) funds for REI.)

I am on Bigger Pockets to learn how to turn my extensive contacts and vast experience in Insurance industry and ministry into a lucrative Real Estate empire one step at a time.

We had all the RIGHT puzzle pieces sitting in our laps (great realtor, carpenters, and mortgage broker as close friends and family) so we just had to simply put them together (with a lot of hard work and having a family of 4 living in one room at a time for a couple years.)We are now moving to Roslyn, WA and hope to start a similar (although not as extensive) project there and also try to acquire some SFHs in Kittitas County to start our REI education/climb to billions. :) This feels like bragging, but it was a lot of market luck, hard work, amazing friends, and a wife with an eye for staging.

Based upon my experience, a buyer in a similar circumstance as you will be signing an extension and closing whenever the bank is ready. 

Make sure the contractors are licensed and certified in that state if you are doing extensive repairs.