since Congress accepts one year and a day for the definition of a long term capital gain that is used as a basis for the 1031 two tax years.

Most REO sellers are institutions that do not want to see the buyer changing before the deal closes.If you are expecting to buy, close escrow and then later sell there is no issues other than short term gains are taxed at a higher rate.

It can provide you with valuable insight into the seller's motivation and intentions.

In fact, if you want to avoid Capital gains tax, you have to keep the apartment 15 years.

If it costs me $12K in (paid) labor, versus ZERO or even $6K to do it myself I have to gain one heck of a lot of "leverage" to make that pay.

I always heard there are two things that you need to make a contract binding, 1 is a contract with the seller's and the buyer's name agreeing to the terms and 2 something of value, whether it's money, valuable jewelry, or something else.

From my experience good buyers are far more valuable than motivated sellers.

I have decided that real estate investing is going to be the tool I use to gain financial freedom.

I have held the property at times in order to qualify for long term capital gains treatment, that would be hard to do if I was paying hard money rates.

no cap gains and they increase what they can buy each time.