Well....should you invest in a city where the people elected a woman with foreclosures, liens, judgements, garnishments, ethical violations from the state ethics board,  misused a city credit card, went three years arrears on her federal taxes all while yelling for other people to pay "  their fair share, " left skeletonized dead bodies hanging over Canal St for months on end covered only by a tarp until the wind blew it off to reveal to our horror her blatant disrespect for human dignity?

The challenge is that the property only has a one-hour open house the day before the auction.Here are the details:•Opening bid: $100K•Hard money lender financing: Up to $220K (with my 20% deposit and 100% renovation costs covered)•Comps in the area: $485K–$510K•Estimated rehab (based on pictures): $125KObviously, this estimate could change significantly once I see the property.

(this covers a lot of ground and serves as a nice framework)

He is out of Chicago, but I believe he can cover all across the country.

Is it possible to cover your mortgage taxes and insurance through what the average market amount is in the area?

In an effort to bring ANY $ in to help cover the mortgage ($4600 including taxes and insurance), I put together an AirBnB site for the property and set it live, with zero expectation.

Quote from @Eric Prescott: Yes, I understand that appreciation often means less cash flow and good cash flow typically means weaker appreciation, but there is a sweet spot where there is decent appreciation and sufficient cash flow to cover expenses so that the property pays for itself, and that is what I'm honing in on. 

We've seen our area MLS which covers about 20 counties come down to an average sold to list price ratio of 95.1% and Knox county specifically has come to 96.4 % which is lower by about 2% from this time last year and down from our peak this year of 98.5%. but it's about in line from winter 2022 into spring 2023 which was a time when rates were rapidly rising.

The martial arts promoted heavy conditioning.

Just ensure that the projected rental income comfortably covers the new payments, including the HELOC.