I think its going to be pretty hard for you to do this with no real experience  first thing most folks want to know when investing in this type of transactions is who is leading the charge what is their experience level.close friends and family of course will over look the expeirnce qualifications.. but third parties that have any kind of investing acumen will most likely not..The sponsor in these deals is the critical component.

I don't want holding costs to go through the roof because of the weather, but I also don't want to limit marketing activities and purchasing properties to just the favorable weather months.In my experience it seems that there's a really interesting psychological component of how weather warps people's thoughts and plans.

However, that's only if there's a value-add component, allowing you to buy with plenty of equity. 

I appreciate the sound advice, I'm a ratio person person but can see that my rash actions could be detrimental in the future - don't want that.

If Seller has $2k for 30 days, and another offer for a higher price, but longer DD and more EM, then they evaluate that component as well as percent down, etc.

My purpose here is to call out the additional cost components that noone mentioned yet: Interest which just keeps you going but doesn't move you forward, CapEx which you can't just ignore or it'll bite you later, management costs which if you don't give yourself something for it then you are dreaming that it is paying you since actually you are paying it.  

Once she has some earned income for the tax year, she can set up a solo 401k and put part of that income into a Roth component.

Sit him down and give him an attitude adjustment or he will not last long in this business.He is going to be a detriment to your business.

Until you have the property inspected to determine the current condition of all major components and appliances I would increase your R&M and CapEx numbers to 10%. 

A knowledgeable, hard working realtor is a key component of a successful investing team.