Here're some wild ideas:1 - Try engaging them in so sort of survey.

Do a market survey of the market rents for the same bed/bath in the area to make sure what the market rents are.

After closing from both buy and sell side (purchase and then resell)that takes it down to around 30K potential profit and then insert private money. 4% origination fee, other fees (inspection, survey, etc from hard money lender) that totaled about 10K ,along with the 12-14% interest payment each month (approximately 1200 per month for 3 months) and you are left with about 14K profit pre-tax.

When figuring costs, here are some things to consider:- Many jurisdictions will require permits to demo a house- If permits are required, a Demo Survey will likely be required (and other surveys/tests)- If the houses are old, you may need an asbestos survey- If there is asbestos, you'll need to pay a remediator to remove- You'll need to pay for labor to demo as well as haul-away and dump feesYou can probably find a company that will do all this turn-key for you for not too much more than what you'd pay to piecemeal it.

According to an article titled, “Workers Saving Too Little to Retire” by the Wall Street Journal, 10,000 people are turning 60 every day and 57% of US workers surveyed, report less than $25,000 in household savings.

Contact someone who develops, surveys or has recently built a new SFH @J Scott may be able to assist.

We are reaching out to the real estate investment community on information on the types of properties and investment decisions that are made, and have created a short survey on Survey Monkey.

I'm attempting to locate this information in the Property Owners and Manager's Survey (POMS). http://www.census.gov/housing/poms/ If I'm able to attain hard data for the POMS to justify my expense estimates perhaps it may be easier to re-educate sellers and justify my lower offer prices.

This is in Texas by the way.Thanks$1500 - Origination fee$275 - Doc prep fee$425 - Appraisal Fee$375 - Closing/Escrow fee$100 - Lenders title insurance$200 - Title Endorsements$1207 - Owners title insurance$400 - Survey$120 - mortgage recording change

20 cities in the indexes.17 are down.3 are up where 1 was almost flat.Note that the survey does not cover condos and other things.