Location is a big part of the puzzle.

I am puzzled as to why he didn't fix it up himself and rent it out or sell it.

I'm puzzled, why would you you do that rather than share publicly in this forum that exists for that purpose?

I can't express how happy I am now to understand that piece of the puzzle!

Depending on how much you need to 'borrow' will dictate how hard you have to work or how much of the deal you give up.If you have a lot of money, then find an experienced syndicator to partner up with.If you have a lot of experience but not much current liquidity, you can find money partners and people could bring you deals.If you have good deals, you can also easily find the other two.If you have none then prepare to bust your hump to find pieces of the puzzle and put them together for just a fraction of the deal monetarily, but a large chunk of the deal in experience.Then you build on that.

So I estimated around $13k in holding costs (selling commissions, lender fees, mortgage if I have to hold for a few months, utilities, insurance etc) and followed the below formula.ARV ($183k) - Fixed Costs ($13k) - My Profit ($13k) - Repairs ($6k) - Contingency Fund (5%) = Sellers Requested Offer of $143k.Let me know if I'm missing a piece of this puzzle!

Admittedly, I am still not far enough along in the process to fit this piece of the puzzle or know if it is a red herring.Finally, as my wife and I have read our posts and the replies, we wanted to apologize if we come off as entitled a-holes.

What is most frustrating is that the puzzle piece of financing seems to be far from a one-size-fits-all solution.

That's a great way to make sure you have the right pieces of the puzzle.  

We're taking this exploratory trip to see how we like the area and to get an idea of the lay of the land, which neighborhoods are what etc.