But I can't afford to put in sweat equity AND finance the materials as well.I know this concept might surprise many who think the contractor should play bank too, but it isn't going to work that way here.What are your thoughts?

I look at all this like greed costs you more then it makes you, gotta be reasonable and not sweat the small stuff sometimes.

If it were me, and I had enough cash after setting aside living expenses (everyone says 6 months, I like 1 year), I would look to get into something for less money and make up the difference with sweat equity.

You will need to have enough equity at that time, either through appreciation, sweat equity improvement, and/or loan paydown.If you buy the 2nd property with a conventional loan or commercial loan then you can keep the FHA loan in place on property #1 even after you move out.

Just TONS of blood, sweat, and tears.

Like you, I have put a ton of sweat equity into my properties and it is a great way to get ahead.

Your "sweat equity" will often increase the value of the asset, but won't pay off monetarily until it is time to sell.

 - we get bombarded - with all kinds of request - who cares - WE decided to put ourselves out there in a public forumwhat i'm trying to say is:why sweat the small stuffget annoyed at things that cost you money or lose your money!!

Both of us are single so we don't have to worry about supporting a family so we can live on Ramen noodles for awhile.I don't have construction skills which is my I'm bringing on my friend, he has extensive construction experience and will be fairly hands on doing a lot of the work and sweat equity on the flips as we start out.

As far as our personal deals go, we purchased our townhouse for 160K put 4K materials and lots of sweat equity into it, and it is worth about 185K now.