3) How quickly can you close?

It's part of the reason we were considering doing some flips or even flip and hold with a hard money loan so we could get some quick properties. 

Recognize "good" deals (they don't have to be "great")....don't change your criteria....but do move quickly once you find something that fits your requirements.Realize you will make mistakes and be ok with it. - Use mistakes as learning opportunities to improve. 

To add to that, a quick way is to look at what has been selling in the past 3-6 months in a given area.

They should be able to answer these questions quickly.

Then he gives me a cost of what it would take for labor and then an estimation of materials, so I can submit my offer quickly. 

If you have a lot in PMI cost, then you could pay down the loan until that’s gonna and that may help your cash flow situation.If I just do a quick split of the range you gave, and assume rent is 2000.

But a lot of those initial high looking returns get eaten up really quick with higher maintenance and higher turnover.

Here are two quick and dirty ways: for the lowest interest rate get a HELOC on your home.Since it's a 5 unit you're facing commercial rates and are playing in the big leagues of financing which means you need a seasoned entity combined with personal guarantee for the lowest possible interest rate.You can buy a seasoned entity online (make sure it's in the same state) that has a 80 or higher credit score, move the entity to the property address, change all the credit lines to the new address, transfer the property into it, and get your credit score to 720+.Apply for a commercial loan if you don't want to go the HELOC route.

I lived in an apartment in Woodbridge about 12 years ago and I found a roommate on roommates.com pretty quickly.