So if the house is 1000 sq ft the rehab could potentially cost me $100K......if you mess these numbers up it could not only kill the deal but you could potentially lose money!

Remember to always follow up with prospects so you don't lose them .

The only reason I can see is if you over paid for it and it continued to lose value in 2010 before beginning to go back up in 2011+.

Seller seems pretty motivated (i.e. flexible) and has nothing to lose by working with me to get this thing closed, rehabbed, and cash flowing again, so perhaps he will entertain some creative techniques to get this done.David, or anyone else, can you give me some more guidance on the owner financing terms I might go back to the seller with?

It's usually good practice to be overly conservative and to retain excess capital for repairs etc, so I wouldn't go out and spend all of your cash at once.

Straight out of high school I served in the military and then spent the past 10 years working in IT.I have finally reached a point where I’m tired of working for the corporate industry on a limited salary while doing nothing for my retirement.For the past year I’ve been watching house flipping shows and decided I wanted to give it a try.Six months ago I bought my first house with a 203k loan that I’m currently living in so I could get some experience.I paid $167,500 for the house and took out $35,000 with the 203k.The house was a probate that had been abandoned for 5 years.Half the house was on a concrete slab that had sunk about 4” in the middle and it was completely outdated.We removed 2 load bearing walls to open up the kitchen, knocked out the back wall, built a new subfloor, and put up a 4 panel sliding glass door to let in some sun light.We installed porcelain tile in the kitchen, stainless steel appliances, new cabinets and quartz counters as well as recessed lighting.We fixed the foundation problems by mudjacking to raise the floors and carpeted the back 3 rooms that sat on top of the slab.As you can imagine we ran through the $35,000 quickly.The 2 bathrooms are still outdated and the house needs new siding.After the renovation we had it reappraised (per the 203k loan agreement) and they said it was worth $215,000.About 3 months after the renovation I attended a 3 day Fortune Builders seminar and come to a realization I probably could have saved about $20,000 if I had systems and processes to follow before I purchased the house.After listening to BP podcasts and hear other people’s experiences I’m quite fortunate I didn’t lose money.This sums up my real estate investing experience.

Account Closed - it seems that you have an excessive amount of moisture in the basement... both the buckling wood floor (I assume wood flooring installed over a sleeper system) and the epoxy floor bubbling are indicative of high moisture.  

I know the bank is potentially losing money on the house if the owner paid too or did too much cash out then failed to pay.  

Sometimes landlords don't raise rents for years on fear of losing good paying tenants.

I would hate to lose everything I have worked so hard over, because I was sued and lost and too cheap to have insurance ;) Just my two cents ;)