I went into detail about the idea background, discussed the way it would go, etc., and got hijacked again and told I could not post it. 

Hey BP,Need your input on this please.I've had something come up in my personal life and will need extra cash over the next 6 months to a year.

Do you have any suggestions on how to educate myself before jumping in to purchase something and then being hit with fees or extra expenses I'm not prepared for?

Take care of your tenants by offering extra perks that others don't offer...like washer/dryer, Wi-Fi, small grid-tie solar system.

So, here are the details of our (my wife and I and now a 1.5 year old son, and 3.5 yr old daughter) first flip.

They will ask you for millions of details, that you probably don't have & even if you did, would take dozens of hours to gather up.Then when you ask them to provide that same information to you, so that you can vette them, they will say things like,  "Oh, if you are barking at all of these ridiculous requirements this early, then you probably aren't loan wothy, blah blah blah. 

So what I'm looking for from you, the greatest RE community, is some guidance on which strategy I should go with, and / or more details about HUD homes.I'd love to connect with people who have:Gone through the process of buying a HUD home (so I could get a step-by-step)An agent that specializes in HUD homes (I've heard too many stories of unqualified agents dropping the ball)Experience in the University Heights market (I've been looking on the west side mostly)Experience with FHA / 203(k) loans (to go over finer details)I would be extremely grateful if anyone could help at all.

I know what I have to do in San Diego, but I have no clue if Encino has some extra hoops to jump through.

The place already needs a full update, so the only extra cost to us is the movers and a dumpster.

We were quoted $130K for every single thing, including extras that we wanted like a sump pump, the mold remediation for both houses (2 came on this property) was $20K alone, @Mark Gallagher.