No if it's priced right it's a steal for most buyers.The fact the you mention THE RIGHT buyer indicates it is overpriced and the seller is wanting you to find THE ONE buyer who will pay top market for it.So it is either a steal or it is not.Usually that market is slow moving as those are move up homes and many buyers are underwater in their current homes.Research in your area WHAT IS SELLING.I focus on what buyer are wanting to buy in the marketplace and NOT what sellers are wanting to sell.Your MLS will have data on what product type is moving.Expensive homes have a bunch of outlay in marketing costs so the listing should not be taken lightly.Some friends that have been selling upper end homes for years provide basic marketing and anything additional make the seller pay for it and keep the receipts.Then when it sells they credit the seller off of their commission.This way if the seller wants to take off the market early or change brokers/agents and not give you the average marketing time to sell it they are out the money and not you.It makes the seller think long and hard about correct pricing when it is THEIR money on the line.

Actually, I found out this is not a wholesale deal (although this group of people normally does wholesaling and I did buy one other rental through them about a year ago--I don't feel they ripped me off on that other deal).Apparently they own this house outright and are trying to flip it (is that the correct term for an unrehabbed house?).

Meaning when I go buy a car I don't look at the paint job.A paint job is just small money and some gloss on the tires.I focus on the expensive items like the bones of the vehicle.So with a house I know which items are cheap to fix and which items are expensive and I also know if the repair they are claiming was made when trying to sell to me is correct or it was done improperly and will fail soon and will need to be redone completely.You can try to find another manager but if you have a little house where the manager only make 60 bucks a month etc. there is not much money to be had for the grief involved.I just hope you didn't overpay for this property and expect to try to unrealistically cut repairs to now maintain a profit margin.That won't work and will eventually hurt you upon resale of the property with deferred maintenance.A number one mistake I see is over paying and then grasping at anything to cut costs.

You're absolutely correct.

But, I did see a hoodlum waving a pistol around in the street.

Matt, You are correct, you can only have 1 FHA loan at a time, but I would not be so quick to dump your FHA and go conventional.

I *think* that you can apply your losses towards future earnings as tax deductions... so you might be OK if you consider the $80K loss as a way to reduce your tax obligations over the next 5-10 years.You should research what you can do with that loss and/or speak with a CPA for the correct answer... but I think it is possible, I know someone still doing it with stock market losses incurred during the crash of 2000.

If I remember correctly your usage is deducted from the deposit, which is returned after you have the power cut off.

Thanks JonSo if I am in a twenty percent bracket then I am taxed at that rate correct?

Yesterday I was reviewing for an upcoming closing and found that the commision wasn't figured correctly and was too low.