First, do you or your family members have good enough credit to get a loan on the property you would buy?  

I ran the numbers with rough and likely mildly pessimistic estimates of total rehab, based on paying $425 total to have it in good enough shape to keep 70% of rent, then assuming loan cost of 6.5% (definitely pessimistic since the last two were around 5% for me), and they aren't all that attractive-  If $425k total in-Rent for $4200 total =$2940/month using 70% rule$2535/month P+I for $340k borrowed at 6.5% for 20 years $1500 insurance plus $2740 Taxes=$353/month for Taxes and insurance$2890 total MTI =Marginal to no cash flow, $7800 per year in paydown- so about 10% on the $80k I have in, Then market gain leveraged X 5- This is the big wild card, and the one where I may be less optimistic than the rest of the crowd. 4% sustained yearly gain would make the whole thing seem really attractive all of a sudden- but I don't see our economy expanding in the middle class enough for this to keep happening for much longer :(a 1% cheaper loan saves only $200/month- still weak sauce cash-flow wise. 

It is a model that makes them money but I haven't seen any deals good enough to make me want to us their loans.

I believe that saying "to make money" is not good enough and not deep enough.

It this good enough to flip I have others he emailed me to in pa...Shamokin, PA 17872DUPLEX, 2 units, side by sideEach side has 3 bedrooms and 1 full bathLiving room, dining room, kitchen, 1st floor laundryOff street parkingneeds clean outLast house on the block, private setting, beautiful views

If it's a good enough deal with a little wiggle room, maybe. 

Your units are in "just good enough" condition.

That should be good enough to help pay for a mortgage on a 250k - 300k mortgage.  

Most Landlords/investors want to provide as good a property as their budget can provide as it is just good business sense to do that as a happy client is generally a paying client, unlike what the politicians seem to get told about us ;-) .Some of these people trying to get involved in setting the standards have no real reality on life to understand what should and shouldn't be in an effective standard to the point that some testing mechanisms being trialled aren't even passing new builds that have just passed there Code of Compliance (so if its good enough to pass the new building code why is it not good enough for a minimum standard???)

I meant it like, is it smarter when investing to save some cash to have available, or if the deal is good enough to use all the capital?