Money is too cheap and easy to come by today to get massive returns. 

If there's one thing that may be needed, it's another bathroom since this massive 5-bed home only has 2. 

He's the best in the business at finding deals and negotiating which is how he's able to build a bunch of equity by buying at massive discounts.

If he's a retail agent as they call it, primarily helping people finding owner occupied homes/condos, then he has a different lense and is exposed to completely different homes and classes of people.

Given my overall assets at the moment, $50,000+ into a single note is rather uncomfortable and creates massive exposure to a single asset.

Cash can buy what banks won't lend on because of too many repairs needed or an 'odd' property you can make standard with massive ROI value adds.

I have looked near Alabama A&M as well and there are a lot of housing being flipped in that area for great rentals ($45K-70K) but not something for major retail for the markets. 

Richard makes some great points and I worked my *** off as a retail manager for many years to be able to help finance my investments.

With these numbers there are many homes that I see where one could pay retail and still make large profits adding square footage, making the number of available deals much larger than for those seeking only cosmetic upgrades.How does the average per square foot construction cost compare to the average per square foot sale cost in your area?

This leaves you with more turnkey rentals at retail price ... if that is what you want to buy anyhow, then no problem, but if you are looking at getting a distressed property for under market value with a VA loan, that could be a problem, unless you have an evil genius mortgage broker like Chris M. that could figure out how to make the darn thing close escrow :)