The challenge is getting a painter to work in a very narrow window of opportunity - when you need him.The market tends to be very slow from Christmas until Feburary - ajust your holding time accordingly - this is great time to pickup up REO bargains.Many winter/spring REO's have frozen pipes which seem to scare away some investors and regular buyers.

These tend to have the "wedge" freeze up and then the valve breaks in the closed position when you try to open it.

I am a "binge poster" and tend to stay away for some period of time due to my work and then show up and read the threads and then post.

The second payment is almost always a lot smaller than the first payment and people tended to believe they could make the second payment and that somehow vindicated them.

However, power tends to corrupt.

We tend to close on 2-3 properties with the above strategy.

Since I tend to deal with basket cases I can usually safely assume that we are looking at all new flooring, for example, so on 1000sf I might mentally note $4-5k for flooring, and then adjust that after I walk the property - maybe all the HW can be refinished, or maybe there's a room or two that needs a subfloor/joist repair before we even get to the finished floor.

John FrankYour choice of paint sheen will depend a lot on where you are and what finishes are prevalent in your market and what type of property you have.In my travels, I've noted that textured walls and ceilings (orange peel, knock down, etc) tend to become more common as one heads south.  

I tend to start with one of the front of the property, two of the kitchen, one to two of the living area, the bathroom, etc.

Sellers tend to give incomplete/inaccurate information.