Once the process starts to take up all of my time and the profit margin proves to be large enough to support me, I plan to leave my day job and put all of my time and focus on growing this small side business into something much larger and more profitable.

It's tough to find a property on the MLS with good margins in my area and I'm debating if I should be taking this route.

Brian has finger in a ton of different pies and is looking for the right margins to determine whether it's a deal. 

McLennan CAD Property ID:xxxLegal Description (partial):xxx Block 3 Lot 4B 5 Acres 0.2083 ADDRESS: 2222 xxxx Ave.Waco, Texas 76706-2906DWELLING: The house and outbuilding(s) located at the above addressSELLER:Maria S xxxBUYER:Waco House BUYER, LLCTERMS:$xxx CashTerms and ConditionsSELLER warrants there are no outstanding “fix-it” letters or letters of demand for repairs, code violations, hazardous conditions or red tags from the city, county, or any other government agency.Offer is contingent upon BUYER being able to obtain a standard fire insurance policy.BUYER agrees to waive standard lead-based paint and asbestos tests required for older properties—years built from 1938 to 1952.SELLER warrants DWELLING is “hooked up” and serviced by city/county water and sewer providers.BUYER has observed marginal condition of roof on the DWELLING.

@j scott there is definitely a nice margin on this deal.

Builders (and we know there are lots) are still trying to sell their completed projects at their original planned price to meet their margins, but they are simply sitting. 

Okay so, does it make more sense to keep the house you're rehabbing as a rental since the profit margin is slim if you try and sell it?

@Dan FallaPatent's might not be so bad if I had people to do all that paperwork ... we were a small startup, so no anything department to help out.We've only done a few rent-to-own - both tenant first and property first (the latter as an exit to a marginal rental).Rent-to-own is in the wheelhouse of @Doug Pretorius down in Waterloo ... you might give him a shout out.

@Crystal Smith Ideally my goal would be to cashflow the property while living in it, even if it is by a small margin.

In low/no appreciation markets, you want higher cash on cash returns that will offset the lack of appreciation and so you can at least exit the market in 7-10 years if you need to without losing money or you will have been able to save some of the cash flow to make capital improvements and continue to hold the property.Also, you want to buy at a discount so that much of the equity margin you need to avoid selling costs eating up all your aggregate cash flows is captured at purchase (and perhaps some significant gain above that).