Hi Brandon -  The process starts with "increasing your financial intelligence" ... do your homework ... begin by reading BP's Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Investing and pick your niche.Welcome and good luck.

I am good at science and math even though I hate the subject, but someone in this blog encourage me to follow my passion and change major to econs and hopefully get real estate license in near future.

This buyer's MAO is (75% of ARV ) - repairs which turns out to be $274,650Seller will walk away with $84 - $85k and avoid foreclosure.End buyer agrees to list with me @ 6% after the renovations are completed.Assuming I did my math right ... what do you think.

I guess I'm getting caught up on the math that takes place with the seller in your example of I have seen deals structured at X amount of money then the full amount is due after 5 years or even just x amount for 20 years etc at x% interest.And then looking at it from the vantage point of offering terms to my end buyer or tenant buyer that makes sense, leaves me a spread and understanding the "time of money" here, so I know how my money is being affected along the way. 

It's possible, but it takes a lot of homework.

At your purchase price of 238,000 after your 15% down you are looking at a loan of about 195,500 which at a 30 year 4.75% loan your monthly payment is going to be -1,015.8 or -12,189.6 per year.NOI: 10,389Debt Service: -12,190 (Rounded)Cash Flow: -1,801 per year :(This is the cold hard truth of math.  

@brian Watson Why not just use yellow letters.com I think if you do the math your cost will be the same whether you buy the materials bad printer yourself or have them do it.

The contract for deed sounds sweet but do your homework and make sure there is no liens.I am hoping some members here will give you more detailed advice. 

If you get a partner to put up the down payment make sure your math works so you don’t have to pay out of pocket each month.

hi broderick. sundai is correct. tax sales can be a great place to buy real estate, but the federal leins would still be in place. do your due dilegence. also, this list could be used in a different manner. you have names and addresses. go check out each and every one of these places. find the owners. buy right from the owner before the tax sale. some municipalities actually will let you make a payment arrangement on the back taxes. you find the owner, offer to buy the property for a little cash to them, and assume the back taxes. they do not have to know that you will then be paying those back taxes in a payment agreement with the local tax authority. all you are doing is assuming their obligation which gets them off the hook. you make the payments to your tax authority just like a house payment, and you own a house. you can do whatever you want with it along the way. he again, do your homework. make sure you are not buying someone elses heartache. there may be other leins on the property and you do not want those. i have personally bought 2 houses in this manner. good luck to you