The location you are investing in out of state should meet a set of criteria you have pre-determined, typically a lot of people look for job opportunities, population growth, and look to stay in a certain price point range. 

For lease option, since you agree to a predetermined price earlier, can't you wait for the market to go up, and then buy at the cheaper pre determined price, assuming real estate does go up in price?

We will pay them for work completed on a pre-determined schedule that everyone agrees to in advance.

I would like to turn it into a 3 bedroom single family.How can I pre-determine the value after rehab?

The keys to this strategy would be to find the right broker & and begin with a great real estate attorney to draft and organize an agreement between you to define the relationship, duties, responsibilities, profit split, liability, and a predetermined exit strategy.  

You hired a contractor who doesn't know what he's doing, or forgot to include something important and will come to you with a change order/increase request when he realizes.3.Your signed contract needs to include a complete scope of work, and a predetermined rate for unexpected but needed extra work. i.e.

But that's not what I am complaining about, I am complaining about LA putting properties on the MLS knowing there is only one pre-determined buyer they will let in.

Do some deals as lease options, keeping your numbers small and having a predetermined profitability, so that as you review deals, you can easily see what works and does not.

Usually if I have a predetermined idea of MOD.

I don't doubt that the market can still grow, however lots of sellers are capitalizing on it now while mortgage rates are super low and inventory is even lower.Aside from the normal charges when selling (commissions/attorney/escrow/title fees as you mentioned) there are some others, major ones being transfer taxes which are: New York City Real Property Transfer Tax = 1% of purchase price if $500,000 or less and 1.425% if more than $500,000.New York State Transfer Tax = .4% of the purchase price Some buildings also have what's called a "flip tax" which is a pre-determined percentage of the purchase price that's paid at closing...each building is different in this case.