The amount you'll save off of the purchase price will be significantly more than what the vacancy will cost.

Whether or not you get the high end of that dollar amount, is based on the quality of what you are renting. 

You are right about the risk that comes with the holding period but in my opinion sometimes you have to take the risk and make sure the profit that you generate is higher than the costs that you paid by holding the deal for a specific amount of time.

gotta echo the sentiment for spending some time on the ground even if a small amount on the front end. 

#riskybusinessIMHO no amount of "company culture" can make up for these risks.

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

Welcome to the community and be ready for a huge amount of information at your finger tips.

The area had appreciated substantially in a short amount of time.

Quote from @Meena Mallik: Quote from @Nick Belsky: @Meena MallikWelcome to the community and be ready for a huge amount of information at your finger tips.

The property will be sold upon completion.Rate:  12.05%Term:  13 months interest onlyARV:  $648,000Loan Amount:  $433,000Processing Fees:  $15,361.64 (3 pts plus processing fees)Escrow Charges:  $3,130.90Insurance/taxes:  $1,722.82Construction Holdback:  $498,361Cash to Close:  $84,762.36 In the OP, you said that the loan amount was $346k.