Have to do your homework on the deal.

So it'd be like $32k downpayment, but minus $20k credit (plus fees, but let's count those out for simple math) means that I'd pay $12k down to the mortgage company and have the extra $20k for the cost of the new roof.

Throw in a home office and you've got some pretty fun math to do spread out over 3 or possibly 4 different schedules that has to be done exactly correctly and, (trust me on this - I used to work for TurboTax), most self-service tax software programs are simply not equipped to handle this easily and you must answer the interview questions exactly perfectly in order to get this right.

While you will need to make good estimates on any offers you make, the math is not MBA  future value, cost accounting stuff. 

You should probably do your homework before you dive in.

I see your math argument @Colin Smith.  

In order to help pay down the small loan I had for the 20-30k my ARV would help with that as well, assuming I did my homework correctly and get those rehabs to increase the value to 95-100k.

i gave you a way to figure a price, we do not know the numbers for the house, i can tell you to offer $250,000 for it and they will laugh at you. you need to do the math with all the figures for expenses and what you would like to make on the property. i don't think anyone can tell you what to offer with what little information you provided. i was giving you an idea of your income based on different prices and your mortgage. what is enough to cover your expenses and make you money ?

So with his math I shouldn't have payed more than $28,000.

I figure that no family needs 3 freaking Real Estate agents, so REI seemed like a natural fit since I have always been a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy and am very comfortable with the math and complexity associated with this industry.