Our budget is very slim on this one, so ideas on numbers and any contacts are welcomed too.  

@Michelle Juarez  Given your budget, I might check out Collinwood or Old Brooklyn as possible Cleveland neighborhoods. 

If you are using hard money you need to budget for the points and fees as well as traditional third party closing fees.Repairs: The money it is going to take you to rehab the property plus an extra 10% of estimated repair costs to account for unexpected repairs.Holdings Costs: Here is where a lot of investors get tripped up.

If you're going to use a "simple" method for analyzing rehab cost like the $12 a sq foot method, I would be extremely careful and particular setting money aside to go over that budget.

Although I'm qualified for conventional as well as fha, the lender said that most real estate agents are confused in thinking that only fha homes must pass safety and health standards, while conventional loan approved homes do not, so that when they say it isn't approved for an fha, it also likely isn't approved for a conventional loan.One house I was looking at in particular did have some issues, but it's well below my budget, 90k when I'm approved for 200k.

If you are managing this as your sole property than some extra effort and preplanning will keep your vacancy low if the property is in a decent location.Speaking of management, keep this budgeted even if you don't hire it out.

Just haven't made much money on this one yet.So to sum it up, I budgeted $325 a month to replace the items that I needed to over the first 5 years..

Jan Fensterer Two great pieces of advice for budgeting projects that I learned at an SJREIA meeting from a guest speaker. 1) Set up your payment schedule in small increments.

Things tend to go over budget...

The only properties you can expect to find in Miami for under 150k are either condos (in which case you have to deal with HOAs and associations), townhomes (again, HOAs), or SFR in D or F neighborhoods (warzones).Honestly, in B and C neighborhoods that most would target for solid rentals with likely appreciation, the land value alone will be close to that budget.