I fully agree with you on the land; we're not wanting to go into the suburbs but rather exchange 15 acres of ag land for 2-5 acres of wooded land. (35 acres with the rental home included) All this acreage adds up to a lot of work in fence repairs, keeping ag status current with cattle, cleaning up trees that have been dying in this long drought, picking up trash that blows from the road, weed control, etc.

Anyway I’m 2 weeks into this deal and expect all the demo, repairs and paint to be wrapped up in the next couple of weeks and I’ll begin furnishing all the units with new stuff.

When the photos of her 'surprise' hit my phone, I almost fainted.

Although I have the money for purchasing and the repairs up front, what kind of money should I keep in reserve for after the deal?  

I will find the property, get a conventional bank loan, find a tenant, do the repairs etc. and manage the property.

It could be A) you are asking them to pay closing costs which could be about $10,000 or moreB) They know of repairs that are needed to get FHA approval that they would have to complete which is why they requested conventional onlyIt could also be both. 

You can buy a home that could need rehab or cosmetic repairs and fix it up yourself.

Gary Clisele Also if your buying a note for $5k the quality of the asset will be very poor and is most likely a property in a D area that needs extensive repairs -If you end up taking the property back it will probably be a loser since the rehab will be higher than the property is worth

Purchase price is 130K under the conservative ARV, repairs are unlikely to exceed 75K, most likely 50k.

Did you change cell phone number ?