Me before going: I would love to get into real estate I'll finish up college, pay off my student loans, and save for 10 year until I have cash to invest. 

But upon finishing the class, I got access to the MLS as an associate through one of my realtors, so I never actually took the actual licensing exam.

Or, after I complete the rehab, I will sell the house from myself to my wife (or to my wife and myself) and record the deed at the full value of the finished property (120 in the example above).

Plus I like the idea of having the option to pull permits on multiple houses, and being able to freely sell the houses once they are finished.

If you have the parking, I'd find one where you have a basement to finish off for an additional room...and rent the other bedrooms separately.

What you want to do is what my husband and I have been doing for the past 12 years, we have been doing it this way which is the way it has worked for us:Our first home was a traditional sale FHA the house was outdated it needed a lot of work in kitchen and bathrooms plus carpet, we lived there for a few years mean while we were fixing it little by little with money out of our pockets the home cost us $117k we sold it for $220k, with that money we bought a piece of land (more like a lot) for $35k and built a house on it for $60k sold that one for $120k, we were fortunate to sale the house when price of homes here in AZ were really low we were able to by 2 houses with 120K but they were foreclosures and one needed a lot of work the other one also need some work but not as much so we lived in that one till we finished fixing both up the one that needed a lot of work (ugly one) cost us $40k and we put $20K into it we rent that one out now for $900 per month we are holding it for a few years to avoid paying a lot of taxes, the house has recently been appraised for $136K we have had the house for 2 years.The other house cost us $60K and only had to put $10k into it (we just put new roof, fixed rv gate and painted house inside and out) we sold it about a year ago and sold for $138K, we recently jumped to our next home which we live in it now we got it a year ago for $157K it was a short sale we just painted and fixed the pool and now it has been appraised for $225K.

HelloI just finished watching the pod cast with Brian Burke and on the pod cast they touched on starting out.

I still have to finish it, but I learned a ton from just that video already!

I ended up having a couple self imposed delays on things like materials, colors, finish items that could have been avoided by better up-front planning.

@Matt LairdReally impossible to say without seeing it and knowing the level of finishes required, but I'd ballpark it at $30k+ based on what you've said here, maybe less if you're doing a bunch of the work yourself (we're in the DIY forum).That kitchen will be expensive, as you need cabinets, countertops, backsplash, appliances, fixtures and flooring.