I did consider a fix-flip, but again, the unknowns are enough there that I'm not sure there would be any meat left afterwards.I would add the caveat that I don't have a lot of experience myself, so if you are confident you can handle the issues, don't let my aversion deter you.

The program forces that hit into the immediate future, whereas I would have taken it in some unknown point it time. 

Thing is I really wanna be there to learn the process, so I can lose this fear of the unknown.

I'll dive deeper into the title search results this evening to ensure that there are no additional mortgages that would not have been cleared at foreclosure (e.g. senior lien to the foreclosed note).Biggest unknown right now is figuring out how to get the documents properly drawn up and recorded.

In 2011, my wife and I started putting money aside for a future unknown investment.

You also have some unknowns, like if I hire someone under a fixed price (90% of the time they are hourly), just because I don't want to baby sit them and want a turn-key job, my expenses will be like this, for every dollar i spend on a fixed price, i have to pay ~15% in employer taces, and ~15-20% in workers comp (on average), that brings me to 35-40% and leaving me with 10-15% in gross profit.

Run your numbers, calculate your expenses and when you feel you are conservative on them, add another contingency expense (say another 10-40% for unknown expenses - believe me, you will use this money up!).

Bathrooms are currently unknown so I'm going to through in a placeholder of $10,000.

No lawns, but snow removal question is unknown.

The 5k was in there when I was thinking I might not have access to some of the units for a while for extensive rehab.If I had full access to the house, I've been figuring in $35-50k in rehab costs.I'm pretty sure $15-25k could be more than enough to get the proper kind of tenants in there at market rates...but I'd still prefer a well-done job w/ nice fixtures....and to provide a little buffer room for unknown expenditures.