I like the process of finding a fixer upper and making it a nice house.Considered rental investments but right now to me and my wife - fixing and improving homes seems more exciting than managing a rental.

Cash out refi and heloc are not seeming options at this juncture since I just officially started my RE investing business, am self employed (debt/income ratio) and I'm working on improving my FICO scores. 

Obviously there are tax strategies that you should evaluate when doing either, but you probably have a head start on that versus most of us!

I put out marketing packages based on actual numbers because all experienced investors will do their own underwriting and make offers based on real numbers but this is hardly the norm.It would behoove you to look at IREM.org as they have financial information from local property managers in every major market and they'll give you the real numbers when it comes to the cost of repairs, water & sewer, heat, electrical, payroll and other information.Once you have this, you should start practicing underwriting deals with your own spreadsheet or one like RealData so you can learn what a deal will actually make versus what BS brokers put out to market.

I tend to acquire multifamily property in markets with a compelling growth story (of course the future is uncertain but it pays to begin in the right direction), improve the property to bump the income in the front side of the investment, then monitor for the optimal exit point.  

- The difference in cost from that timeline of fixing up the SFH (how long will it take and what will that cost you, plus just the general cost/hassle of having to do it...)Really, it does come down to your strategy and comfort level and goals but hopefully that gave you a few other things to consider versus just price and income. 

Scenario - Purchase a building for $70,000Initial improvements $25,000New value $145,000Refinance at 75% of $145,000 = $108,750 mortgageThe problem that I am running into is that I am showing an long term asset value of $70,000 + $25,000 = $95,000 but an offsetting long term liability value of $108,750.  

I'm not sure what capital improvements you can make for $8,400 a year.

I've read some of the forums and blog posts, and everyone's examples always seem to be slightly different than mine and I want to make sure I approach this correctly.Under SHST, can I expense the cost of an improvement (in this case, a new water heater) fully in the year it's placed into service? 

It indicates to me that the applicant has a history of making late payments or stiffing a creditor.If the property is not generating a lot of applications, I would definitely have the applicant address the 600 credit score, review credit reports to what has been going on and see if there has been any improvement in payment pattern.