Add utilities, lawn and pool care $800-1000.

If you don’t care about maximizing loan amount then you could start whenever.

I also don’t like renting really nicely rehabbed properties, most renters don’t take care of properties as well as we would hope.

I have just read through the four years of this thread and found some great tips, thank you to the OP @Thomas Youngman and all the content others have provided.

While I was running my inspection business, trying to build a real estate business, and taking care of 4 rentals with family, I was also going to night school to get a degree in MIS.

I have a hard money lender established to cover 80% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab, so my capital partners would be covering:20% of the purchase priceRange of $30,000-$50,000 cost of capital25% of the renovation budget (to kickstart the project while waiting for reimbursements)$25,000 contingency padAny tips would be great, and if you happen to be interested yourself I can send you more details.

But after working with him, I realized he was very systematic and mostly cared about closing deals without much care for the client's long term needs.Here’s an example: I had a $10K escrow with the seller—$5K due upfront and $5K after the inspection.

That number seems high but the neighborhood was “hot” and houses sold really quickly.What I cared about most was completing my second deal to gain experience.

Nobody will take better care of your property than yourself and nobody will be as invested into as yourself. 

You’ll want to handle this carefully to stay within the law.