In July 2014 I bought a 200+ unit deal in Dallas, TX for $6 million and at closing the property appraised at $7.4 million.The deal was off-market and I located by doing a strategic direct mail campaign.This was a tough repositioning deal, but since buying, I have spent $500k of my $750k rehab budget doing interior and exterior upgrades.I am working with a third party management company in TX and we have increased rents over a $100 per unit since acquisition.We increased occupancy from 84% in July 2014 to today we are 99% occupied.I raised $2 million for the deal by doing a syndication.

if i were you, i would take a sample and have it tested just to have it tested. if it is mold, there are 18 different species of black mold and only 2 are toxic. that advice is coming from a licensed home inspector with a mold certificate. if it is black mold and is toxic, then you can remove it yourself, but protect yourself too. make it part of your offer. if the seller doesn't want to accept your offer based on the mold, then walk away. if you do not want the place because of the mold issues, would someone else want it?

You can email us address and we can see what our lawn service guy can tell us since he was born and raised in Memphis.  

I was born and raised in Louisiana and at 18yrs. old decided to join the military.

The idea behind doing the flip is to raise capital to buy another rental instead of waiting for my current rental inventory to produce enough capital to purchase the next property.  

I called the manufacturer (GE) and was told that the glass in stoves is tested at extreme heat to ensure that it is safe from cracking.  

@Bob Bowling raises a good point however.

So if his fair market rent is $2,000 we would consider  income  at either $4,000 or $4,200 so that's close to the 1% test.  1% would be an income of $5,000 a month.  

Hire a certified industrial hygienist to perform an air quality test (recommend this over a test kit you can buy at a store since those typically do not hold up in court.

And folks whose financial lives are not in order often have a very difficult time submitting a lot of the basic documents that the VA/USDA/FHA/FHMLC/FNMA require, as they often have things on their tax returns or in their bank statements that raise a red flag, or require additional docs, letters of explanation, etc in order to analyze their personal finances.