I know it depends on the actual property itself, but I'm just looking for a general knowledge since I've never priced it out before.

With no handyman knowledge, of course it would be much better if you could get a house that needs only cosmetic work, for you to learn on, and then work your way up to the more involved deals.

Many thanks to those on this great forum who are willing to share their knowledge & experience.

And any hurdles the city or other agency may through in the way of rebuilding.You need to figure out what it will really cost to fix it up, if the exit strategy is fix-and-flip.If the exit strategy is rental, what are the rents.

Thanks for all of your advises, it turns out this agent is in the middle of quitting (or being fired) from the current broker and getting in to another; he has been sitting on doc for over 3 weeks (mostly basic REO disclosures that needed to be signed and return to selling agent) that he didn’t know how to pull them out of Windforms (Realtor Online Contract data base); asked seller’s agent questions about them over and over; lack of REO knowledge (REO Specialist printed on his card) and couldn’t care less for his last few clients…Relayed the facts above (with a little help from the selling agent) in addition to the tangible misled evident to my agent’s boss and got only 18 moths worth HOA fee ($810) credited.Yes, another rookie’s lesson learn; just didn’t think he would be that much out of line for a major issue like such; considering he’s a 72 year old guy with shallow ethic.

The house has illegal bedrooms, faulty wiring etc, things that needed to be explained in person and was going to make an awesome shortsale.Anyhow, I specifically told him to take the realtor lockboxes off, or replace them with combination boxes and don't put the combination in the listing.Sure enough, both banks managed to get appraisals without my knowledge, and now we are facing the battle of the bank thinking its way too high of a value.Anyway, figured I would share this, its one of the first things I tell everyone.

I am sure you will find a vast array of information, tools and knowledge here.

I'll defer to others more knowledge for that.

The information shared and knowledge of the speakers was very good.

As you get more knowledgable you will probably want to try to buy for yourself than just get bird dog fees.