Another variable in the amount of rent that a Section 8 tenant can pay is HUD limits their rent payment based on the amount of their income. 

You can do an exchange for less than the full amount, but you will owe taxes on the boot.

Do you have any idea of the amount of money you can contribute to the purchase of a property?

Provide them proof of your ability to find, fix, flip (or whatever strategy you plan to use), and then start with small amounts of their money.

that we’ve learned in our 24 years, managing almost 700 doors across the Metro Detroit area, including almost 100 S8 leases:Class A Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% the more recent norm.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 680+ (roughly 5% probability of default), zero evictions in last 7 years.Class B Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, decent amount of relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% should be applied only if proper research done to support.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 620-680 (around 10% probability of default), some blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 5 yearsClass C Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, high cashflow and at the lower end of relative rent & value appreciation.

In Texas, the state I mostly work, despire me being in California, sellers in the "B" usually are okay with lower EMD/option amounts, i.e. $200. 

I can accurately estimate utility costs as most util companies have estimated usages and amounts on their websites, but costs like maintenance, CapEx, make ready, etc., are much harder to estimate.

Hiring someone to do the work will likely cost too much (I would charge a small fortune, it's an incredible amount of work) and doing things as cheaply as possible will bite you in the *** later when you start having issues with your own shoddy work and/or materials.

Luckily, we knew this and expected this task to take a shorter amount of time because we've done it many times before.

Financing contingency is there if you can't get the loan at the amount you thought, interest rate is raised or your payment changed higher than you put in the loan could give you an out.