I am interested in a property that is in owner occupant stage.  

So we target properties at the stage of pre-foreclosure.

This is the magic of leverage.Even though the bank contributed 75% of the money, all you have to do is pay the mortgage and interest, and any excess cash flow or profit is all yours.

You could renovate and list, but if you aren't paying your mortgage for 120+ days (the general timeline for being issued an NOD in CA), you likely don't have excess money laying around to renovate.

It's difficult to give you a precise dollar value of what type of reserves you will need---as the number will be influenced greatly by the type of rehab needed...Here is some advice to consider:- Don't try fund/do all the rehab at once---do it in stages for a more affordable and manageable property transition

I've administered in excess of 75,000 1031 exchanges during my 24 years in the business as a professional Qualified Intermediary and we see very, very few of these audited.

Staging of a house is done on the fundamental belief that a well staged house will cost money.

Yo -- I don't know Turn off the lights and I'll glow To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle

I am in the very beginning stages of real estate investing, which is trying to learn as much as I can.Crystal

Right now I am in my learning stages and working to establish my business and finalize my plan.