Make sure the are close, a townhouse and have comparable features.Even though the previous owner may have purchased the home for $35k he may have put some money into mechanicals or plumbing that you might now see.

There is a certain segment of people that are tired of cheap rehabs, short sales, etc that are focused on the combination of quality combined with technology and energy efficiency.I'm actively hunting some infill redevelopment sites to build exactly what your talking about with the emphasis being on 500-700k homes with the goal being to hit a zero energy status.

I bought my first house about 6 months out of college (BS mechanical engineering), so obviously I didn't 2 years of employment history.

All kinds of mortgage products began hitting the streets, like the no-income verification type products.The role of the mortgage originator became more mechanical in checking off program requirements which got easier.

You would typically do rough electric, rough plumbing and rough mechanical (HVAC) after 4 in Scott's interior list.

Great advice in the earlier post about putting money into the areas such as roofs and mechanical systems not typically abused by tenants.

Emphasis on purchasing AS IS .

Every bit of profit potential with every tax lein, mechanics lein, unpaid property taxes, irs lein, code enforcement violations, unpaid utilities, overdue library books, etc....

I'm still in the earlier stages of scoping our Reno, so haven't honed in on a property type yet -- I want to decide this based on my goals, which are cash flow and appreciation value, but the emphasis is rather on cash flow.

In the kitchen, did you not put in taller cabinets because the soffit actually hides mechanicals and couldn't be removed?