Even if you can recover refinishing costs from a tenant's deposits you're shortening the life of the floor, which is expensive to replace.If you put carpet or some other flooring down they'll be preserved until you do decide to sell.

The block wall is more expensive but way more durable.

Find a lender that will accept the amount of equity in the property (20% in this example) and the partner has little or no out of pocket expense.2.

You can't make an offer without knowing some key points about income and expenses but the owner may not give you leases before having it under contract.  

This is the summary of expense that the broker gave me.

In order to ensure that this works in both you and the loanee's favor  you will need them to provide around 15-20% of the purchase price  and the cost of any rehab expenses if they exceed what you will lend.

Seems like it can be very expensive to replace.

if I go by your numbers 54k purchase price amd 24k for rehab  that's 78k you're going to rent 2 units for 750 so that's $1500 a month.you should calculate the expenses taxes ,insurance,maintenance etc and see if the cash flow will make sense.. you can use the 2% rule which in this case looks like you're right on the money. . so if 54k and 24k are right numbers and this is not a complete war zone were you would get your $1500 every month with no problems than this should be a good deal..check again for the rehab costs with a local contractos ask to have written estimates. also see if you need to pull permits.. these takes time and money. .good luck!!

Here's a much earlier thread (by Steph's teacher) that has interesting bits from Steph herself, in between the "for and against" hyberbole:- https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/79/topics/410...Fast forward seven years, and the latest reincarnation appears to be: quickflipninja.comThere are multiple threads about that one too eg:- https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/79/topics/179...Everyone needs to make up their own minds as to yea or nay regarding allowing themselves to be upsold into expensive education/mentoring, or, researching the same info for "free"!

@ethan @Ethan JohnsonIf you find that your area is too expensive for buy and hold , you should consider the Kansas City area since you used to live there.