I have rehabbed several homes over the past 5 years while working in environmental engineering.I have gained considerable knowledge on REI and would now like to move from part time to a fulltime basis.

Save money for awhile.The easiest way you might start is trying to position yourself to buy a small SF house, live in it, make the improvements over time and in two years take the gain tax free.

If I were to rollover 600k into a 1031 exchange (to build mor condos), and take 200k out and use it as a downpayment on a small apartment complex, would iI have to pay capital gains on the 200k since its not a 1031 exchange (not simalar investment)?

If I rent it out longer than 3 years then I have to pay tax on 400k current price capital gains since I bought the house dirt cheap from my grandparents.

Hello BlakNout,Welcome to the forum, this is a great place to get a lot of valuable information.

Realtors are extremely valuable to me overall but in a case like this, having the ability to go directly to the homeowner to make an offer will only help your bottom line if Realtor fee's can be saved.That being said, I wanted to offer my method for making an offer.Granted, this is more effective when the property is "distressed" rather than an ordinary house listed for sale.I don't make offers like most do by offering a number and hope they will accept it or counter.

However, just how valuable of an asset will this be to me?

Married couples can exclude gains up to $500K on a property they've lived in for two of the last five years.But, as Chops says, it can be a challenge.

Hello everyone, I'm an extreme novice and am here to gain as much information as possible.I'm two years out of college and own a residential painting company (I'm scared of a real job).

As much as I hated spending my summers working on the houses the experience I gained was something you couldn't pay for.I graduated from Virginia Tech in May 2003 and lived at home for the summer while I started my full time career as an IT Consultant.