Originally posted by @Mark Elliott:hi rowan. well, lets see. you need to take a first step. all previous answers are good answers. lets first look at why your credit is where it is. fixing a problem means first understanding the problem and how you got there. the first thing you are going to want to do is go on annualcreditreport.com. you can look at all 3 of your credit reports here, on line, in full. you need to see what is in there. even if there is a legit reason for the bad credit, you still could have things on there that are not yours. dispute anything negative. it seems unethical, but dispute ALL things negative. the reason being, the credit reporting agency is required by law to check up on anything you dispute. if the creditor that they contact does not answer back in 30 days, the credit reporting agency is required to remove the negative report from your report. thats right, even if it is correct, if the creditor is legit and the debt is legit, if they do not answer back in 30 days, it gets taken off your report. second, go to a local bank. take $1000 if you can. deposit the $1000 in a savings account. a month later, go take out a personal loan from that bank for $1000, using the savings account as collateral. rust me, they will give it to you because it is secured. take the borrowed $1000 to another bank and deposit it into a savings account. repeat the process several times. then when you get to the last bank and borrow the $1000, use that to pay off the first one and repeat that process. make sure you make all the payments along the way. what you are doing here is establishing credit with several banks. after a while, you will have several banks that will be willing to loan you money without collateral. then, check with your local cities on tax foreclosed houses. these are houses that the city and/or county have repossessed from owners because they did not pay their taxes. they sell them at auction and usually pretty damn cheap. i have bought one for $500 once, fixed it and sold it. its a good cheap way to start

(http://investfourmore.com/2014/06/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-save-before-becoming-a-real-estate-agent/ )Note that Invest Four More is a website by @Mark Ferguson.

@Mark Creason  Bait and switch comes to my mind.. it gets you in the door then when you tell them for sure if we have not sold it in 29 days for 300k we will cut you a check for 200k No problem  LOL... guess who signs the listing agreement and probably declines the sales guarnetee part.

Thanks Mark (sirry the @ doesn't work on my phone).I feel like a duplex hits a sweet spot where you get a lot of space and privacy compared to a complex, especially if it's mixed in a SFH area.  

Mark

I’m sure we can all agree that an appraiser can miss the mark and so having 2 objective experts establish the value protects your interests and keeps you from getting into a bad deal.

and "OMG the fed raised the overnight rate and now the investment world is going to drown again like it was 2008" Both are great topics for discussion, but you could easily join one of the existing dozen that someone else already created.For people new to the site, and maybe new to discussion boards all together, please use the search button in the upper right (next to your picture) to search for the topic you want to get info or discuss.

They have over a thousand dollars in fuel, and travel.2014 taxes: $18952015 taxes: $1900*Now, rent for the area on a 2/1 should be closer to the $550-$600 mark, depending on what the inside looks like.

If your bottom line was supposed to be a $7k mark-up for example, you can just tell them in future: "Sorry, $3k more and it's yours"! 

Originally posted by @Mark Nolan:@Frederick Smith Sr.Welcome to Bigger Pockets.