i am married, my wife  [ 60 y/o ] is also disabled due to no kidneys and is on Home Hemo Dialysis, but she spends hours everyday looking through real estate , and though we have found several great oppurtunities, we have no been able to capitalise on them due to out low income and crummy credit ,  [although when i moved here i had 621 score until when I tried to refi through Loan Depot, they really messed me up and I am not sure what my score is now.]I think the first thing I need to do is repair my credit as best as I can, as well as see what kind of assets and value I have to help me get the investing process going. [ kinda long story packed with lessons there]  Due to a small windfall we have $5,000 earmarked for beginning real estate investing in hopes of getting our of our crushing poverty trench.I want to begin by doing non rehab wholesaling,  but am also wondering if Tax Lien investing might allow me more bang for my few bucks. 

If raise the rates to the 2 BR rate and earmark the extra rent towards doing the 3 BR Reno whenever they leave.

Run it is a completely business-like manner.Then you earmark a percentage of your profits to be used to help people.

In fact, even if you are already in business, chances are you don’t have an extensive cash allocation earmarked for promotion, or you’ve tried many different advertising approaches and vehicles and haven’t hit on a really successful campaign yet.

I was wondering if anyone can purchase a HUD home or a VA property, or are they earmarked for certain populations?

I ask this because these funds are ear marked for use in retirement, a long term investments and can be effectively used to leverage your return without having to re mortgage your primary residence.

There are HUGE problems and we have politicians that have no clue about economics, but they sure understand “earmarks” as a way to get votes.The negatives have been well documented.On the plus side:Our economy is huge and the world needs us for that reason.

I disagree about the charging the upfront fee makes a serious buyer.I can't tell you how many scammers I have seen in the commercial lending arena.I can say one problem lenders face is they get a package submitted to them and then give an LOI.Then in due diligence the buyer finds out the income levels and returns were not as stated.Now the lender wants a bigger payment down from the buyer or the buyer has to get the seller to reduce to the actual proven numbers.The deal falls out and the lender made nothing.The way to solve this is submit a detailed and verified package upfront.This way you know the numbers you are sending have been verified.Lenders site confidentiality etc. when doing loans so you can't verify other properties they have closed.If lenders state money has to be in escrow or a deposit have YOUR attorney hold in an account the lender does not have access to or authorization to.This way the money can be shown to be there and earmarked for the purposes of the loan.I am telling you these scammers will do anything to separate you from your money.I know some deals I wasn't involved in where the people chased the lender for 6 months to get back 500k.Do not let lenders PUFF fees.If they say they have to pay for appraisal then tell them you will pay the appraiser directly.If you are a legit lender and you make money when you close a loan you should have no problem with this.If however you are a fee generator mill and you hardly close anything or a point taker with upfront fees I can't tell clients to work with you.Some point takers take money to submit apps knowing the lender will not close or that it's a sham.They usually charge a small amount upfront to entice the victim.Usually 500 to a few thousand.

At this point I might use 1/3 to 1/2 of my earmarked ”RE acquisition and rehab” capital on any one deal.

I would use a small portion of the funds in the short term during this transition and the large share would be ear marked for a larger primary residence - renting out our current residence.