In FL, for full paint - walls, ceilings, doors, molding - for 1,000 sq, $3000 is in the ballpark but $2500 would be right.

It depends on your loan.Your plan is to spend $50k to make $200-300k more a month?

Varinder - I'd be interested to learn more.Just saw your DM! 

Maybe your situation is different and if you don’t feel comfortable in the neighborhood then this may be a moot point anyway.As for FHA, my understanding is that you must intend to live in the house for a year  it sounds like you did intend to, but due to unexpected circumstances- lead exposure and unexpected unsafe neighborhood- you have to move.

Its easy to say that an older property cashflows better when you look at a spreadsheet.

@Mitchel Johnson Welcome to BP and I wish you the best in investing..Usually people start by going to local meetups and building a network of trusted people to get their feet wetHere is an examplehttps://www.meetup.com/find/?

I understand why you want to avoid a HELOC.

And you would have to recapture depreciation.

Obviously, the rules will differ from state to state.The most successful buyers have trusted bidders with cashier’s checks in multiple denominations (for cash sales) and the actual buyers have field runners and people to monitor multiple prospective properties at a given time and check sales status for postponements due to BK, etc.This is the case in larger metro markets where many properties could go to sale but few do so.There are often better ways to acquire properties then auctions.

All in all it was worth it for us and my client over those years, but you never know when you will get that proverbial knock on the door.