Improving the house can Increase your cash flow a little. 

Hey Malcolm, debt financing shouldn't be an issue; with a DSCR loan, you can borrow within an LLC, and it does not need to exist for a certain period of time.

Basis will be what you spent to purchase the property, plus improvement costs.3.

In the beginning for me it was skill that needed improvement.

With existing properties, you can start earning rental income faster and build equity through sweat equity by making improvements yourself.

These operate like hard money loans, without origination fees or draw requests.

However, my challenge is a lot of student loans of ~100k (bachelors and masters degrees), which consequently affects my credit.

Just my 2 centsTo answer the question if it’s a tear down you need to understand the comps In That area and the cost to remove the existing and rebuild - where many go wrong with rebuilds is they assume best case construction and holding times and time is money especially if using a construction loan.

I have an opportunity to by a 6-unit property for $300K with a $240k Commercial loan and a Seller carry back of $60K at a 6% interest rate with a 5-year balloon. 

When we bought the home, we used a VA loan and then we had to PCS (move in the military).