All before the 12/21 deadline.  

We are holding $30,000 in escrow against any damages and have a hard 30 days deadline for him.Our exit strategy would be to put new appliances and clean up and put it right back on the market for $235-$240k.The seller found out about us through referral from another seller we had marketed to.You never know where your deal would come from. 

Come up with a plan regarding how to get started with goals and deadlines associated and then start working toward them. 

When we have a hot job that needs to be done we'll do a hard money job (Lump Sum) and we're willing to pay the contractors a little more than normal but we have tighter deadlines. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/common-types-of-construction-contracts-844483   Hope this helps! 

, can’t put too much cash down, looking for something that needs work done that we can slowly finance via our current home’s rental (hoping to get $2000+/month) without any pressure or deadlines.

That being said you learn so much more by doing, so the start date deadline is a great idea! 

You may not be able to make every decision at the start, but you should understand all of the detailed deadlines and dependencies.

We don't have a hard deadline, so have time to continue education, etc.

But we did over pay bit even with my contract having 4 scope deadlines.

@Robert WalstonI haven't put down anything as yet...listings are going quickly here, before I can even get an offer on the table, the listing has multiple offers.Not joking, today, July 6th, received an email alert from an agent for multi-fams, texted realtor at 8am to put an offer on a duplex, she calls me 8:15am & says their deadline for offers was 5pm yesterday.