I know a bunch of you are wayyyyy up on the influence numbers, having been here forever, but, I'm on EVERYday... why do I lose influence points?

1) Use hard money, make improvements to the property, then refinance in 6 mths to a bank mortgage at a substantially higher appraisal amount.

Her dad died after they lost everything in the earthquake, and I'm probably letting that influence me.

- I also have substantial finance fees we typically amortize those

My opinion (maybe influenced by the fact that im considering it and in the position to do so) is that the Cash Out strategy is still a great strategy.

After numerous attempts, I was finally successful (calling from a number unknown to them) but they basically told me that I had lost all my money, and lost the opportunity to foreclose on the 10 properties (a loss of the substantial profits they projected), even though I paid them $17,500 for this and they, as my agent, were supposed to be managing it with a fiduciary responsibility to me.

I think seeing his experience influences me a lot.

Well I haven't worked in residential for years and years (long time ago).When I did a newbie investor would be looking for a house with just cosmetic (carpet and paint) to flip.The newbie investor was scared of anything more substantial.Problem was all the regular home buyers would bid close to asking or over because they were fine with fixing up and having 5k to 15k equity afterwords.The investor could not buy at those margins unless they were holding to rent out and the rental numbers made sense for the price paid.So in my opinion finding a home near mint that needs little work at a low price is finding a needle in a haystack.More realistic for flipping is finding properties needing substantial work where the owner occupant is scared away.You the investor can get the problems fixed really cheap below regular labor and material rates.This helps you achieve more leverage to buy the property at a lower price and create more equity on the rehab as well.That is probably where the bigger returns are.

Markets like that are experiencing substantial growth, have higher caps rates and ultimately will return both a decent dividend and a higher stock price.

I'd be more inclined to invest in Utah County than SLC though taking full advantage of BYU and the Mormon influence.