They love the flip life for the art of the deal and instant gratification of cash in hand.  

Properties values are going up instantly and the high rollers are coming to town even more than before.

I was originally looking for a home with a mother-in law I could rent out, (alternative to a duplex) but so many are done very poorly, and the ones that are nice are sold instantly.

The above 3/2 house (872m2 land) has likely reserve of R1 680 000 (if the owners never paid a cent in mortgages) Estimated municipal valuation R2 million (Comps agree)So buy well you get R400 000 instant equity to renovate and increase your potential rental to R20000.But the owner might not want to leave anytime soon.Opportunity is everywhere, you just have to know HOW to look, not just where.

I would be purchasing it and have instant equity $15-20K.

Owner pays the lawn/snow - about $1,000/year, the water/sewer - also about $1,000/year, hot water (property has a Rinnai instant hot water heater) which runs about $1,400/year and he pays the electric for apartments 2&3 as they're on the same meter.Gross Rents: $18,960Taxes: 2,900Insurance: 600Lawn/Snow: 1,000Water/Sewer: 1,000Propane: 1,400Electric: 1,400Trash: 720Debt Service: 4,500Vacancy/CapEx: 2,500Leaves a profit of: $2,940/year.

It makes you focus on what you feel is the absolute single most important decision of your life at that very instant.  

That said, you can always refinance to a non FHA product and turn it into a rental...though you likely won't be in any type of instant equity position...

Good deals are getting snatched up instantly. 

We believe that we can add value instantly by increasing the online presence of the property.Even at the high vacancy rate, creative financing on down payment, and with accounting for property management and cleaning costs (which we plan to pay ourselves to do, but may want to outsource later if able), the cabins at their current rent price will cashflow, according to the actual NOI formula above, so we are feeling pretty confident in the purchase even if the value add play doesn't work out.