This is 10 minute pre-work that avoids an hour or more of travel/showings.My biggest point in all of this is that to make 6, or 10 or 25 offers without success is not that out of the ordinary if you're trying to get a deal.

Long term capital gains - you pay 15% or 20% when you sell the buy and hold (or defer it with a 1031) but your ordinary rate when you flip. 

A mild solution will remove ordinary dirt, grease and marks.

It's also secured so that ordinary tenant abuse can't bring it crashing down on top of anyone.

My take on tax is that if the $15k is treated as rent, ordinary income tax rate applies; if it is treated as purchase price reduction which lowers the cost basis, capital gain tax rate applies as you have held it for more than one year.

Flipping income is NOT capital gains -- it's ordinary income that will be taxed at your marginal rate.Second, once you have two years of tax returns indicating this income, most conventional (and pretty much all portfolio) lenders will allow you to use this income towards your DTI.  

Well, there won't be any cap gains, it'll be ordinary income.....development/flipping verses long term investment gains.

California weather: outdoor space such as patio or deck with a cover would be nice.

Any interest they receive, of course, will be taxed at their ordinary income rate and it will take away any child tax credits and stuff they would normally qualify for, if the interest they receive is more than $600/yr each.   

If you know what the norms are anything out of the ordinary jumps out as a potential opportunity that might be worth investigating.