If I'm buying a property in which I'm going to do minimal work cleaning and gutting it and I only own the property for less than a week, will lenders still lend me money for this really short period of time?

But I don't want to keep delaying my entry into real estate investing.

Make sure it is convenient for all those effected by it and needs to have minimal distractions.  

Try taking off the owner hat and only wearing the PM hat and maybe you'll see better what everyone's getting at...the initial question being: whether you as the PM would think it's fair for an owner who knew about the delay off onto a renter as rent-compensation, without underlinggjnh/circling/highlighting, etc and telling them it's "non-refundable" if they don't wait the 30days.

My expenses would be very minimal since its newer.

If you're putting in minimal time and effort then sure anything is better than nothing, it'll just take significantly more than that to seriously scale it.

They can get a loan letter to you that states the average loan closing time and the maximum amount that you qualified for.Another thing you might do is to find your office location that is convenient and has a minimal of distractions.  

If it only has one bath - and you're not adding another, then carefully plan your bath remodel so the toilet/shower is out of commission for a minimal amount of time.Keep one room clean.

My first deal has been delayed for three weeks now because the local HOA assessed fees on HUD for not having a mailbox up throughout the period of the foreclosure.Is this a normal kind of delay?

Overall the costs of the fire repair were less than my deductible, but it caused delays getting the city to allow us to rent it again.