Yes we were successful winning bidding wars 3 months ago using the family postcard technique;) Basically, we added a cute picture of our family along with our offers (which were based on conventional financing) and our “humanity” made us win over the cash offers.

Easier to predict expenses - typically no major repairs unless from association3.

Hi Chris from the U.P. of Michigan.Congratulations on deciding to get into real estate investing with your first Buy, Rehab, Rent, Re-finance, and Repeat or BRRRR and you are wondering where to start and who you should add to your team first.It is good you have cash or cash equivalents to buy the property and complete the repairs.As far as who to have on your team first, I would say an investor friendly Realtor who can help you find deals and introduce you to the rest of the team like a good property inspector to hopefully let you know about potentially expensive repairs early before buying the property so you can buy it well or not buy it at all.

I was surprised to learn that even they, with all of their resources,  maintain a limited rolodex of GC's to whom they turn for repair work.

Every deal is different, and every person is looking for different marginsAfter Repair Value (ARV) - Rehab Costs - Purchase Price - Fees (holding costs, closing costs, selling fees) = Net Profit (before taxes).Are you ok with the net profit based on how long it's gonna take from start to closing? 

I buy/cash flow day 1 and let the tenants make the cosmetic repairs.  

They will try to run 2 kitchens and that can mean clogged drains in your wet bar kitchen.Be sure there is personal recourse when you need to sue them for $40k in repairs above the deposit.

But what you will find is that most repairs are pretty easy - and if we don't want to mess with it we will call someone ourselves... but someone we know is going to shoot us a fair deal.

Glue residue can really be a pita, but a judge probably doesn't think so, but will usually respect hired out repairs.

Alternatively you may decide not to address the capex but be prepared to deal with high frequency maintenance requests with duct tape repairs.