My initial reaction from my walk through above would be that the holding period in the Real Estate doesn't begin until you have the rights and benefits associated with the real estate - so the earliest at the end of the redemption period, but really beginning once you take possession and can start doing stuff with the property.Some further digging I found some examples of it, but if you were a paying client I would be spending more time to see if there were any subsequent changes to this rule - at the very least Bloomberg isn't calling it out on me ;) . 

I understand this happens when you walk around a neighborhood but I've seen many people invest out-of-state and still do fine.

Take a leisurely walk through home depot or Lowes.

$300K should allow you to buy a duplex/2-unit and both doors should be offering a profit even at 15% down.If you are in a situation where you are getting hit with high taxes, high rate, low rents it might be a "Walk away deal".I have to have conversations daily talking people out of buying a particular home because its a bad deal.

Purchase 2:  A 3 bedroom, 3 bath house a short walk to Poipu Beach. 

First I would ask the seller to do a walk-through of the property and see everything firsthand.

I went into the course assuming I was paying $10k for a streamlined acquisitions process but what i got was two days of narcissistic self-aggrandizing guru garbage, a “mind map” that looks like it was thrown together, 34 “strategies” that can be found for free on BiggerPockets sprinkled with juuuuuust enough guru gimmick word vomit and hand waving to impress the eager and inexperienced, several of which were repulsive and absolutely predatory..Instructing students who get their offers turned down by a seller to walk out of the appointment, get in their car and blast out the property out to cash buyers anyway..  

Getting into the story behind this one..This deal was sourced from a large corporate wholesaler (no names) Originally listed as 179,999 as a "wholetail" deal with an "ARV" of 250,000 I walked the house and estimated it needed little in terms of repairs, though I knew a realistic ARV was between 215-230 However, there were tenants in the house without a lease agreement with the current landlord.

So watch your walking space all around an imaginary bed size.

Getting into the story behind this one..This deal was sourced from a large corporate wholesaler (no names) Originally listed as 179,999 as a "wholetail" deal with an "ARV" of 250,000 I walked the house and estimated it needed little in terms of repairs, though I knew a realistic ARV was between 215-230 However, there were tenants in the house without a lease agreement with the current landlord.