You’ll need to put in some leg work on that and start analyzing individual deals out there.

The bleach will kill any mold and as long as the source of moisture has been removed, voila.Remediation specialists will charge and arm and a leg, but they really do not do much more.

Assuming you have no pressing liquidity concerns and have a stable household income, I would prefer to buy houses in middle-to-upper middle parts of the metroplex.

Perhaps you can use your skills as a leg up to look for deals where subdivision or a change in use can increase value.Brian

The property itself should be a fixer upper where you can build equity.

Therefore, unless you find a fixer upper with only cosmetic problems you something that is a great deal probably won’t qualify.If you are currently renting and don’t see yourself moving from the area anytime soon it doesn’t make sense to rent when you can still build equity (especially at a lower cost than renting).

Go figure one of those deals was in Upper Darby, PA and is where my investment went according to the "promissory note". 

After doing a very comprehensive search through various LA neighborhoods for both turnkey & fixer-uppers, going from Inglewood/Hawthorne to NoHo to East LA (Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, etc.), I've realized it's incredibly difficult to find qualified investments.

You have a big leg up on a buyer that wants to live there and needs concrete answers. 

So far I've complete a medium level rehab on a dilapidated property (Middletown) that's been in my family since the 1950s/1960s  which is currently a rental property I manage for my mother, done a moderate amount of repairs on her house (Middletown), and purchased my own fixer upper (4 unit house-hack in Caldwell) where I've done a full rehab on one unit and medium to light work on the other units.