Pretty cool item.

I personally never mess with electrical panels, roofs, heating and cooling or major plumbing.

Again if you are getting an owner occupied low down first time homebuyer loan you will generally have to live in it for at least a year.To tell if the deal will be decent or not I agree with Dan that we need to know more of what the expense break downs are.

Marie Poe gave you a great example.When I approach this type of situation I like to have more in depth info before I propose solutions to the seller. ( sellers expectations, wants & needs, current rent, market rent, expenses, existing loan balance & terms etc.)It would be cool if this transaction could be done using your IRA (or someone else's) to buy an option.

Cool I learn something new every day.Interesting topic.

Very cool!

Otherwise swap cooling is what I'd put.

You really open yourself up to a lot of snakes who think it's cool to go around someone on a deal just to save a couple of bucks.

I always get excited when I see my name mentioned in a post :) Very cool, and glad you are loving BP.What kind of financing are you hoping to find?

I would agree with J's assessment and pay close attention to the items he showed that you missed - demo, finish carpentry, rough plumbing/ electrical, etc.The other thing to make sure of is the major items - HVAC, roof, electrical panel, foundation, etc. loos like you are wanting to do a new HVAC system so J was correct that your entire combo price for heat and cool would be around $4k which you estimated higher.Time to get that offer in!