Then I would make sure the house is-1. water tight - fix the roof2. all working parts are still working ( water heater, furnance, ect) and no exposed outlets or wires3. broken windows4. tight doors5. no flaking paint exterior or interior6. flooring - safe to walk on7. fix or remove rickety outbuildings8. pleasing to the eye from the outside ( well trimmed shrub & trees)This is what I learned on my first buy and it just cost me 3 returns of the appraiser to get it right.

Not a ton of profit as a lump sum, but in terms of return as a percent of money in or value of home, it makes the cut.

@Joanna Golden, Congrats on the property.When you say how to capitalize, do you mean how to show That in the return? 

I went to SCDOR to pay the sales tax and they said I would show having 100,000 (for example) in sales, since I am filing this sales tax return with SCDOR. 

What kind of return is your goal from each flip?

I'm assuming that your return on equity for all of your existing properties is higher than 7% and you would expect at least that on any future acquisitions.  

Return on investment may be good because you could buy cheaper here and still collect regular rent. 

The setup and maintenance costs will be prohibitive and eat up any potential differential in returns that you may be able to generate in real estate as opposed to other IRA investments.

Market is hot and while other cities have less favorable returns, higher purchase prices .

If you have, say, $500,000 to play with, and you get a 10% return (much more passive than buying houses too) - you're almost where you need to be to retire!