@Tom Mole  , I thrive in a thick skinned community and I appreciate your feedback.  

If you still want to do the fixup kind of work hire yourself out as a handyman for a landlord or another flipper and learn the ropes from the inside with no skin in the game.

Remember, hard money is risky for the lender too and they will always want you to have skin in the game.One way around the down payment is to use another property as collateral if it has great equity.

(all of you full time rehabbers out there can skin me, but I just want to plug in some numbers to illustrate the principle)So let's say you estimate your repairs at 15/square foot.

The purpose of a down payment is to make sure that the buyer has some skin in the game.

As many have said before me, we have to put some "skin in the game" and not try to lock up a contract with $10 earnest money.

There are also a number of platforms that do things differently as far as skin in the game.

. $867,000Construction of a 4BR 2.5BA 3,000 SF home will run $750k ($250/SF)Breakout of $750k construction is as follows:$100k - soft costs (architect, permits, etc)$400k - Contractor - shell only$200k - finishes$50k - landscapingAll in costs pre-financing $1,617,000FinancingLocal Private bank will finance 60% of as complete value ($2MM) -or- 80% of total project cost.Loan of $1.2MM at 5.5% + 1% loan fee.Financing cost over 12 months $50kRequired skin in game (down payment) - $417kPost Construction Sale $2MM(less) $1.617 Acquisition/construction costs(less) $50k financing(less) $100k sales commission @5%equals $233k pre-tax profitCash-on-Cash Return = 56%After tax profit = $150kAssuming 35% income tax / Total ROI = 36%Would you do this deal?

Not defending either market over the other just point out they are different,Hi Brock,Thanks for your post.As the saying goes "There are many ways to skin a cat" hahaJust as an FYI, that the gross rent on a $60,000 duplex in Ohio would be around $1,000 - $1,200pm making it $5,000+ in monthly rent if 5 where taken into consideration.Also, $60,000 would buy turnkey and decent B class blue collar area.Thanks for reading and have a great day.

You need to develop some thick skin and put in a lot of offers.3.