If I add up all the lender fees and my holding costs—like points, origination fees, and interest —I can figure out how much profit I’ll make and what my maximum offer should be.

There are lots of hard money options (or maybe not "lots" but not too uncommon) with no appraisal required - that makes the offer equivalent to cash (closing within a couple days and no appraisal contingency - its out there)The lender still has to ok the deal, appraisal or not.

There are a lot more things that occur as part of the contract that would be included including valuations for each parcel, specific tax consequences, proffers offered to the city etc. 

For further context, we are trying to have him be the name on the loan because he would be able to utilize his first time home buyer loan to take advantage of the lowered offered interest rate.

You should have that as a benchmark in mind, since it offers a good return without any effort.

Squatters are a real problem nationally and a study found that they target not only vacant properties but those advertised for rent or sale that offer 'immediate occupancy.' 

McKinney and Princeton have been growing a lot and it is a good place to invest, but it is always related to what you are looking to achieve in a rental investment, appreciation or cash flow.At this time that area does not offer a big cash flow and due to the amount of development going on there, rental demand has declined a bit.In any case you have to make an analysis case by case.

Hopping on call with our realtor tonight to outline our next offer!

Offer: $575K.

If you’d like to offer more flexibility, consider keeping extra supplies in a locked closet and making them available upon request.