I added few touches for a comfortable, cozy environment.

@Troy Greaves, with respect, please listen:  just because your Mom got pre-approved for $750K doesn't mean you should just go out an pull the trigger. 

You are spot on with respect to investing in REITs being a good holding tool/vehicle to general decent dividends and modest appreciation over time. 

I am still friends with those people because I respected them and understood that it is their house and they always got their rent.

Now I am trying to get my first deal underway and we are about to close but the initial investors do not wish to fun the deal due to certain guidelines set up by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and now they are asking for a Higher Down Payment 20% and have raised their Interest to 7%The property is a 325k Duplex (3/2 & Efficiency) with Rent $1600 & &675, fixed and based on local comps found through RentoMeter rent can be raised to $1900-$2000 and $800-$900 respectively; i have about 40k but since now they are asking for 20% down, i need a total of 64k to put down.I've considered backing out of the deal and fix my credit all out and look for a new deal next year or try to force the matter by getting a private loan to put down on the property. 

When the market took a turn we were still cash flowing those properties, but we found ourselves underwater with respect to value.  

We sincerely appreciate it.To tackle the response in a respective order, let me begin with:1) You're correct on the first question, we are looking for labor and material estimates for the project... is the only way to obtain these, and I suppose present them, through a contractor?

A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.If you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.Discounts on some products and services are offered to BP members: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/proIf you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

@Russ MarlboroughI've challenged a couple appraisals... if you do it in a nice respectable manner and have good data to base your challenge on (i.e. recent sales) then you shouldn't have a problem with getting them to come up at least part of the way...