As of right now I am signing on to IRS.gov and making estimated payments of 18% for each deal I've done. 2) As far as my direct marketing, business lunches, supplies, gas and whatnot I am keeping receipts for everything.

What rent controls do, it seems, is distort the market, by greatly limiting the market value supply of units.

There is uproar now because regular investors are getting squeezed out by the big boys, though I know that Prosper is trying hard to maintain a good amount of loans for individuals. 

I suppose if that happened on a regular basis then you would need to get better at estimating your repair costs.

Auction properties typically require quite a bit more research and don't come with as many exit strategies as those found on the MLS.I would recommend attending your local auction with no intention on purchasing, observe the actions of the bidders and maybe befriend a regular, if possible.Good luck!

You can only allocate a couple % for this - the other regularly recurring expenses like roto rooting, regular tree trimming, asphalt sealing, etc can all be allocated as part of your diligence and be pretty firm year over year.

See who's representing the owners and tenants, and who seems to be well known as a regular attorney in the court.

Christine,The 70% of ARV strategy is great but these vary based on risk/reward and supply/demand.  

Do you expect to be able to regularly wholesale properties in your State without a License?

Crap for 1 to 15k per house if you have to just abandon one because it did not work no biggee.. you have lost next to nothing monetarily. keep the ones that work throw away the garbage let them go for tax's.If your sitting in CA or AU or GB  or other foreign countries and you think these cheap homes are going to make you rich.. then your just perpetuating the greater fool theory in my mind... and the end of the day simple logic has to dictate.. if houses on the open market were any investor  experienced or not can purchase them for 1 to 5k  well then there is a reason.. and there is a reason that in LA or SF or PDX or SEA  or New York or Boston or other prime markets that values are where they are at.. supply demand and ability to pay for the asset.Detroit bottom line just needs to retrench.. if its only 700k pop now and declining and there were housing stock for double that.. it does not take a genius to understand there is a gross over supply and the better owners or tenants are not going to live in the roughest and most dangerous areas of the city they will flee to safer more stable environs because there are massive amounts of homes that can be bought in nice areas for 100k and under.