Could sell as-is to retail buyers for around $215,000 (those are comps, same model and condition house across the street sold for 215), but with a few updates comps are around $240,000 in the neighborhood. 

Not a truly sustainable business model....

@Brian Barfoot  Well the banks I guess have short memories.. the bank now has 100% risk on the asset you have none .. short of credit issue.I see this going on all across the industry.. right back into some of the models that created all the havoc...

It is inspiring just to see that others in the area are experiencing success with this model.

Are you actually trying to become a full time agent/investor or just an investor working your own model?  

HUD's been out of the business of funding landlords with money for decades. that's one of the areas where the training comes in: influencing landlords and aspiring 'vendors' to learn how to form the state, county, city, community, private & corporate/institutional partnerships that lead to a HUD Sec. 8 grant award becoming available as a "program". if you for instance want to charge elderly tenants $ 2,400 a month for a two bedroom dwelling you can propose that criteria within your Sec. 8 grant proposal as a 'program' vendor. a lot of military veterans that are mildly disabled have allowances for that target range of rent with a live-in home care attendant, or home health aid assistant. most well known regional markets have 5+ year Sec. 8 waiting lists of very desirable tenants that you can cherry pick to your heart's content, featuring all manor of financial circumstance. they range from homeless to affluent with interim insolvency due to quite practical reasons. divorce is a very prominent scenario. a growing wave of real estate heirs are among those Sec. 8 waiting lists in more and more strategic regions. you may find that interacting with more recently credentialed occupancy certification specialists can better acquaint you with the actual yield(s) that would be available from the wide unrelated contributors to a potential Sec. 8, or locally subsidized program military bases also circulate routine information on what certain types of housing is worth to their ongoing efforts for key time intervals. their veteran G.

If this is to be your business model then you'll need a RMLO to originate the loans.

I had someone tell me my business model was un-ethical because buying foreclosures kicks people out of their homes....

One of the things we do is keep my wife in a late-model SUV.

There are good and bad reasons for this, but none of them are encouraging for aspiring landlords.NYC's day of reasonable values could come (I am interested to see what a flood of inventory does to competition).