We are fairly new at REI, so your generous advice is greatly appreciate it.

One was especially generous with his time and extremely knowledgeable. 5.

of how a flipper would look at this deal.ARV  350k  Minus 10% for selling costs  which includes the realtor fee  tax's insurance utls etc while holding it.now most flippers ( myself included) are going to borrow money some where so lets be generous and say 2 points and 10%  plus closing costs.. so lets say they borrow 200k for a round number  that 4k in points 10k in interest so that's 14k for financing lets just say 15k.Now lets say your SOW is 55 in your mind lets say in reality its probably 65k. 

All in all I estimated the costs of repairs at $10-15k, which is an incredibly generous amount, but that would give me room for unforseen expindetures.3) A family member of mine has the same exact floor plan to the house (although the foreclosure is more aesthetically pleasing and has a nicer feel to the inside) She also lives across the street.

Generous and very valuable offer by Peter.

Your challenges will be two-fold:Finding REI friendly lender local to you, in your state.Finding a deal good enough to make up for the fact that the math isn't as generous with owner occupied 2-4 unit properties as it is with pure investment properties.

Be kind and generous to them and they'll want to stay. 

People in government offices often have to deal with not so friendly people and that kind of gesture will often go a long way; just being nice, polite, and showing some gratitude will go a long way.

I've email blasted generous commission carrots to all the local DBs and PMs but have been completely ignored.

After talking to our pool guy, losing the 5 feet in the backyard will required a major redesign of the backyard and would work best if we could get an automatic pool cover (wont go into the reasons but I agree with him)The builder originally offered us 10K as a good faith gesture (original purchase price was ~$750K) or would fully refund our purchase.