@Ken Lou $100K-$150K is a lot to spend in Indianapolis.

These institutional buyers literally have billions of dollars to spend and are recklessly bidding up to 100%, or more, of a property’s retail value.Before these institutional buyers arrived, you could realistically purchase a few properties every month at auction for 65% - 70% of retail value.

Up to the early 2000 models we typically won't spend over $15-$20K for them.

Or spend money on Bandit signs with no results.

As I mentioned above, excavation is expensive -- you would likely spend $5-10K on the excavation and straightening the wall, and then another couple thousand on the beams to hold it in place.With respect to the water intrusion, give the gutters and grading a try.

Even if you don't use property management you should still allocate 10% of gross rent as an expense because you will be spending your own personal time managing it.

However, over the next 5-10 years I plan to spend over $100,000 on a medical degree, and I need a way to pay for that and provide a place to live during that time.

It's good to research this all upfront before you start spending a bunch of money on campaigns etc.

What I don't want to do is get involved with super low end stuff that will cause me to spend all my time with lousy tenants.

When I am working on purchasing I probably spend 20 or 30 hours a week sifting thorough the auction properties, driving them, comping them, and then preparing the bids.