The building was vacant as we are remodeling the first floor and had just finished painting the 2nd and 3rd floors and were in the process of qualifying tenants to move in the following week. 

I think this was to ensure your buyer can qualify for a loan.

The lower unit is small and gets rented 6-9 months at a time to traveling school people like occupational therapists.

A REAL fixer needs so much work that it doesn't qualify for traditional financing options.

A tip would be knowing The number of doors you qualify for from a lender, And then looking at financial statements from places a little smaller and a little bigger.

Because the number of qualifying risk/return deals is just not large enough to handle that amount of money at one time.

Educate the land owner on the potential profit run the numbers and go over the basic proxy and blue prints.Make sure you have a seasoned and qualified Builder/GC because they can be a deal killer with wasted time and inflated material and extended completion dates.

Great idea, although conventional and FHA renovation loans are somewhat of a pain to qualify for.

They were not terrible, some people would call them C minus, and it wasn't even that much about financial considerations at the time (appreciation was not a thing back then in Milwaukee) but just not what I wanted to own or manage, so I sold them to them tenants - after quite a bit of financial coaching to get them to qualify for a loan.My standard advice is always to buy the best quality property you can afford.

The buyer is qualifying for the loan just as if he were the originator of the loan.