Dave Ramsey is great for budgeting and not getting into debt. 

Add up the total and split the resulting figure 60/40 and start going shopping in the pile of tools with that figure as your budget.

How do you plan and keep track of your budget before and during a rehab?

Hello everybody,I'm working on a 2 bedroom 1 bath 1945 built Texas house , when I bought it I had the intention of changing the layout since it’s  in my opinion has a very big design issue with a lot of wasted living space due to the bathroom being between  the living room and kitchen, leaving a very small living room, what I currently want to do is convert the interior to open floor design and convert what is labeled as FAMILY in the picture below to a 3rd bedroom and a bath, I'm  trying to find the best design with least amount of construction since my budget is not very high, also I'm  trying to stay within the standards to be able to sell the house with no issues, I  started working with a Draftsman which he provided few suggested layouts but each one of them has it’s negatives which is why I’m asking for your great advice on which layout to go with and what to change before starting the actual work, below are the existing and suggested layouts, please share your opinions and ideas.The house is supposed to be 1100 SQ-FT not including the Family room I added the survey too for more clarityBelow are the suggested layouts and I'm sharing my opinion on each one of them This one looks goo except the things I'm not sure about is it's okay not to have an entry way ?

Now $440 would have an affect in my budget I wouldn’t want to lose that money just for the possibility of getting a good deal later.About shorting the stock market, I don’t trust it enough to invest in it.

I’ve been working with this agent for awhile, and in this time every house that I’ve seen that meets my needs in the area and price that I want I have found myself, wether on Redfin, just driving around and seeing for sale signs or craigslist, etc. every house the agent has sent me is turn key, thirty minutes outside of the area I am looking at and much more than I’ve expressed my budget to be.

Budget shortfalls could cause those taxes to go up.

There are products out there where you can put 25% down and cover 25% of the rehab budget on the back-end with the lender funding the rest.

Or should the ROI be based strictly on downpayment, closing costs, rehab budget...costs..etc?

I think you will want to prepare a line item budget showing exactly what was done and the costs involved.