Everyone Is different in real estate with being hands on versus not.Many of my clients are very high net worth individuals making mid 6 figures a year.

@Will Ksander as just a brief reply it has to do with housing prices versus rent prices.

If I had one account and my bid (say 7%) was the winning bid - and a bank with 300 sub accounts also bid 7% for the same lien - then the bank had 300 chances to be chosen by the software versus my one chance.Counties evened the playing field by only allowing one account for any one person or institution/fund.

In addition there may be other taxes owed by an LLC like franchise tax, foreign entity tax, (foreign means out of state), capital stock tax, etc.Some insurers charge LLCs more for insurance than real people, and some banks charge higher fees and interest for LLCs versus people.There are other forms of asset protection including don't do stupid & risky things, umbrella insurance and asset stripping.

A 2unit one is vacant you have 50% vacancy versus a quad at 25% vacancy.

Of course this is easier said than done, the vast majority of properties in cheaper areas will not be the next trendy place to live.But it seems once a momentum builds and a neighborhood starts turning around the returns can be amazing.If you do your research and you buy in the path of development or revitalization versus just buying a dirt cheap property the payoff can be big.It seems it's easier to get in when prices are low in real estate versus the stock market.

There are free sites to look up crime statistics for violent versus non violent crimes.For percentage of homeowners versus owner occupant you can look at the tax records and if mailing bill address is different than listed address then usually it's a rental.So if you do not want to spend the money there are resources but you will spend time.

Am I right to assume the major differences are a quit claim deed versus becoming the lienholder and lending the money in draws rather than a combination of the total purchase/rehab costs?

Instead look at the problems of "cost to cure" the issues versus what price the bank is wanting and ultimately what the fix up value will be.You have to quantify the time, aggravation, and expense for the expected return.

It sounds like the carpets are going to need to be cleaned, the mice irradiated and whatever other repairs I find after a walk through and 15 days if the lease allows.How do I determine what damage she caused versus what she moved in with?