Regardless of where you go, with $40,000 typically would best be used as either soft cost (due diligence) money on a new construction for sale project, or alternatively you can buy a $200,000 property, putting 20% down. 

first point out a similar property thats just came on the market (in the last week or so ), call to tell them,  tell them its similar to their property, and you would like to "share" that information with them, and this information would help hem understand what their property is worth,this is a soft approach, so you need to follow up

And I also have a property management company that only manages my own properties which is 239 units total.I am also a Los Angeles contractor and I do Soft Story Retrofit work.

No matter how often I show these pics, No matter how much proof I post, for some reason people just do not grasp how important this concept is and they brush it off as not realistic.I have ranked many a sites#1, not just my site:in markets like southern cali, and dallas...I am an investor just like you.. ok maybe not JUST like you..

After reading what I posted I see how it comes across as dismissive and paints the profession with a broad brush.

THe "as-is" value is much less, needs abt 10k in repairs and the mkt here is soft with houses avg on the mkt 60 plus days when lited at full mkt value.

Yes, this is a very soft, hard money lender that I know personally.

SD can be tricky regarding brush and slope.

Judges must have a soft spot for the holidays LOL.

Is this a soft pull or a hard pull?