If you could pay cash I'd say start out in the $70k's, financing the house is going to leave you a little less room to "low ball" the bank.When asking about how difficult it will be to refi if not sold is a tough question to answer.

@Ryan McCallisterWell, nobody has a crystal ball that can tell you what the market may do.  

The option to buy will either be exercised or not.  

Keep the ball rolling and find one to make a killing on next!

If they ball at 2K, then your fee is next. 

I looked around at properties here in Toronto (very fast market) and new condos usually go for $500K and up and finding little affordables like this $162K property and low-balling the price is next to impossibility.

I am just about to get the ball rolling on this process again.

When shopping around and you tell them what amount you want to finance, the other things like where your credit stand, they should still be able to give you a ball park % rate.

I want to try to post something every day that I'm interested about to learn more about this business, so here it goes.I'd like to know from experienced investors what your first investment strategy was that got the ball rolling.

When you are buying larger deals and buying out of state (aka: outside your comfort zone) - it is a whole different ball game.