The biggest challenge we faced is the property's proximity to a railroad, which has proven to be an impediment to the sale.

Now, you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them.

If the tenant is claiming to be living in a hotel, she may try to get you to reimburse for that cost unless section 8 has a new process to reimburse them for this... which sounds absurd but I'll let you deduce whether or not you're dealing with someone who is used to paying for things out of their own pocket. 

Later I find out from the tenant that the tenant pays their rent early and has already paid January’s rent.

  ( i have owned 3 brokerages over the years and will stand behind those numbers).in the RE training space my thoughts are :5 to 10% of folks that pay for training do anything with it.

That being said, your typical cost of capital is as follows:EquityAgency debtBalance Sheet local lenderDebt FundPrivate DebtPref EquityHard Money DebtBookie/Loan SharkOther things that will impact capital sources: are you wanting to finance the improvements, or will you pay for those from equity/cash flow?  

Look, we’d all like to search the internet, find a deal for sale, analyze the property as having a great cash flow at current interest rates, with lots of upside potential in a gentrifying market.  

If you want good contractors out there quickly , pay their price and pay it quickly . 12 months is too long , we can build a 3000 sq ft house ground up in 3 months . 

The most important rule is to have the cash flow of the new property be able to pay all its expenses, mortgage, AND the line of credit back.

One lesson I’ve learned so far is that patience and thorough due diligence always pay off, whether it’s with property acquisitions or selecting the right team to work with.I’d love to hear more about your journey and what areas of real estate you’re looking to focus on.