You can take an apartment building with problems say 40% occupancy and deferred maintenance and bad tenant mix and management problems and use commercial hard money.You will have to figure in the high debt service while turning around.Once stabilized you will refinance out at the new value up to a certain LTV.Take the money and do it again.The larger the project the more the potential ARV spread after stabilized but the more risk.The larger projects take more time to turn around so the churn rate on the money is slower.What happens and I have seen this is people run out of money and the property is taking longer to stabilize than thought.Then you have some money left but not enough to take down a property yourself until you unload this other deal you bought or refi.You then start partnering with different people on different projects which can lead to a mess.You don't just want to grow out of impatience or doing more deals and then get involved with the wrong people or overt extend yourself.You want smart,well thought out,controlled portfolio growth that is highly calculated.

It will help you decide philosophically how you may want to proceed with your investments and how to do all of the analysis involved.

Hello Hung Nguyen:Keep in mind that many lenders will not accept a short sale unless all of the parties involved (buyer, seller and agents) sign an affidavit of "arms length transaction" stating that there is no agreement or understanding, written or implied, between the buyer and the seller that allows the seller to rent or regain ownership of the property in the future.

I've got lots of family in your area; there are quite a few investors here on the site that are local to you.Jump in and get involved; you'll find that BP is a great resource for your real estate investing career.

I personally went to detroit to look at properties, youd be amazed how nice some of the forclosures are, but almost EVERY house youd buy needs paint, carpet. paint and carpet on a 1000sq house cost several thousand, plus maybe someone from detroit can shed some light here, the city is VERY involved in rentals in the city of detroit, which is why my locals invest in the suburbs and close cities from what i understand, where there are not $100 houses, not even $1000 houses, maybe $10k houses.

I'm about to purchase a residential property with a private seller & no agent involved.

There is a lotta waiting involved.

A 25k loan @7% -Montly payments will be bet 450-550.Do you think this is good way to get some money to get involve in buying and flipping properties with other investors?

If you were looking to purchase a buy-and-hold rental in this manner, what sort of terms would you look for that would be fair to both parties involved?

A GC is going to put a premium on everything so expect to pay more for work they are involved in.