Just focus on gaining the skills you need to build a business (more than just a spreadsheet) and soon you’ll be rolling in experience to tackle those abandoned houses like cake.

But, skimping on personnel or services may look good for a few months but will catch up to us before too long.Cutting expenses is the cherry on the value-add cake, not the bread and butter of it.

Appreciation will be slower but that is icing on the cake.

If you factor in appreciation (which is icing on the cake) at a minimal rate of 5% a year, along with rent growth, you have a hard time finding a better investment.

But they’re selling like hot cakes.

@Warren Rubin, "auto loan" means you're trying to have your cake, and eat it too. 

Be conservative when estimating the appreciation, treat it as icing on the cake.

In a way, it allows you to have your cake and eat it too -- cash flow and appreciation.

After running numbers with local contractors and agents I believe that after a 50k renovation the ARV would sit around 180-200k, but obviously these properties are selling like hot cakes.

I found out about this from a coworker at my day job who quit our company to start a full time baking business (wedding cakes, mostly).