To Jon: I would like to do wholesaling as my primary and pick up some multifamily and maybe do some flips as the economy starts to fuel up (I hope???).

I hope the appraisal doesn't make the deal go south, but how can I word an email to the seller without further adding fuel to the fire (i'm sure he's livid at the appraiser).

They may also get to your exit strategy faster and maximize your profits!

Have ice melt ready.If they have snow thrower, then they will need fuel for it.Make sure your 4 wheel drive vehicle is working.Roofs can be an area of concern.

However, looking back we grew in the area we were in much faster.

Frankly, unless your student debt is priced at 24% or higher, I can't conceive of a reason for you to pay your student debt faster and defer buying real estate -- IF the numbers work.I applaud you for thinking about this now, while you're young.

As the cycle eventually goes up I will hold my own properties for appreciation and rent increases.If you are a seller for many it is a horrible market.If you are a buyer it is a fantastic market in many areas.My area where I live just 1 year ago a 3/2 foreclosure was 85,000.Now I am seeing some in the 32,000 range.This is in a great area as well.The recovery would happen much faster if the banks just dumped fast but they can't take the hit all at once.Their balance sheets have to eat the elephant in the room small bites at a time.

You can rewire a whole house down to the main connection faster than that.I can also tell you from my restaurant builds when I owned my pizza place.NEVER leave your check book anywhere on the premises or open the check book when discussing payments or fees for a job.They will look for how much you have (balance) and try to justify that much for a bill to milk you dry.Have a clause where if the work isn't completed up to standard and passes inspection and certification within a certain time frame for each day past the date so much is taken off the job price.This will keep them from being hot on your job and then jumping to a bigger job they land in the middle of yours.Having the inspection requirements and certifications makes sure they can't just slam in a junk job to finish it.I believe having a GC on site is critical to make sure jobs are completed right so you don't lose time tracking them back down to redo something or touch it up.On the partnership thing people even if on the same page starting out change down the line.You might all start out with the same goals but then want to take the business 2 different directions for a growth strategy.So talking upfront helps but will not solve all partnership changes down the line.My experience has been friends and family will burn you more than anything else.When you are business partners everything is based on the performance of the agreement.When you are best friends it's hard to remain objective and not be sympathetic to their problems.This often times puts the business especially at start up at a systemic risk for failure.Having family in management positions in the past really put me in a bad situation (restaurant business) .Had to make tough choices and never will do that again.Family is fine today but learned from that one.

I do want to mix in some flips to build capital faster but I also like the idea of having these 2 as steady rentals since they should cash flow well.We should be able to do a new deal atleast once every 3-4 months just using some of our discretionary income from our "day jobs".

Another potential option is that the seller could take back a note and then sell it (or a part of it) at a discount to get his cash out faster.