"Soft" costs like appraisals and legal fees don't have to come from your pocket.You don't have to do everything yourself.

When accounting for soft costs, I recommend that you plug in your own figures for vacancy, maintenance & cap ex.  

We could all use some brushing up every once in a while.

@Jamie Wooley A desktop appraisal is a "soft" appraisal of the property where the appraiser doesn't visit the property in person, but they perform all other aspects.  

You're going to hear a lot of investors saying your "deals" are overpriced, and it's best to just brush that off and assume the investor doesn't know what he's talking about to keep your confidence up.

@Crystal Smith the property is a 900 sq ft soft loft condo in Printers Row.

.$250 - $300 / sqft is what the vertically integrated builders are paying - since you're going to be hiring contractors you should budget $300 - $350 /sqft , which would cover soft costs (like permits, plans, and/or entitlements) and hard construction costs. 

I've already received a soft commitment to purchase (in a year and a day) from an investor at the projected ARV.  

The last building, it was listed for $1.8M, needs $300-400k in deferred maintenance and soft story retrofit, went for $2.1M and I was surprised it didn't go higher.

Brush up on building code requirements: in basements you're looking for egress windows that are 5.7 sq feet or more openable (3ft by 3ft casement style windows work best), and ceiling heights 6ft 8 inches or greater (as little as 6 ft 4 inches is ok under ductwork and beams though)3.