It’s going to be difficult to really push the ARV higher than what you paid unless you’re willing to wait 6-12 months

For us, we chose to use the heloc and immediately began to buy, rather than waiting a few years to save for the down payment. 

I just went to a B/P meet up last night for Air BnB, I am looking into that route too, but for now I am going to lay low and continue my R/E licensing exam and wait for summer to pass...apparently it can get real expensive this time of year. 

My house is currently on Zillow “make me move,” so a thousand realtors have called me to try to get me to list with them.

First one is a basic intro (we buy houses, want to buy 2 in your town this spring, selling direct is great for X reasons, let me know if you want an offer), second one highlights what type of sellers typically like to sell to investors (own timeline, no hassle, house needs repairs etc), third mailing is a simple postcard that has similar message on it, fourth mailing is a letter saying I've reached out before and thought you might find these FAQs useful (and I include a 4 pg FAQ distilled from my website)-- I expected that letter to have more response (you'll see above the 4th mailing had a <1% response rate) and it may be that ppl are waiting til after Easter to call, as I get more calls after holidays when ppl have had time to talk to their family.How to track all of this... you can guess by now that I'm super data oriented.

In that case, you don't lose anything by submitting the offer and waiting to see what it appraises for.

I guess I was thinking that perhaps they were being pressured to liquidate the estate and that a fast cash offer would be appealing rather than drag out and wait for five houses to be sold separately.  

can't wait to finish your story.

On my nine unit here in Berwyn, we raised the deductible several thousand dollars and that made a huge difference. 

It's better to just rent and wait for when the numbers make more sense.