Their inflated costs and reduced services make them an unattractive option.

Meaning any of your Helocs can be closed or reduced at any point if any of your banks feel you are over leveraged, miss a payment, credit score drops, even by mistake it happens all the time.I would get rid of the Helocs and put some cash in your bank so you can use that versus a Heloc. 

do you guys prefer to only invest in newer homes  i.e. built after a certain year to reduce the possibility of having to do a lot of reno on wiring, plumbing, etc. or does it just depend on seeing the house and determining the condition that its in?

@Bao Vu The purchase price and related expenses from 2023 should be included in the cost basis for the flip sold in 2024, reducing your taxable gain.

@Saika Maeda Permitting the ADU allows you to claim depreciation, operating expenses, and other tax deductions, potentially reducing your taxable rental income.

Unless you can get the price significantly reduced, walk away Tim!

I start with market rent or a little less to reduce vacancy.

Using your $100K example, the 6% seller assist is far more valuable to this buyer than merely reducing the purchase price by $6K because the 6% seller assist is a $6,000 reduction in funds required to close whereas reducing the purchase price by $6K equates to less than a $200 savings (2.5% down payment + some incidentals).

.- Getting under contract and then reducing the price because of findings is common, but major reductions are likely to tick off the seller unless you have strong justification.

We also were able to get the property taxes reduced by filing a complaint with the county.