BUT the buyer came in with a $63K down payment, so I also knew that that amount would more than cover the difference.  

Hey everyone, I have been doing driving for dollars lately in my local area and I have found a good amount of homes that look distressed and could be good opportunites for wholesale deals.Today I called one of the owners of the property and she said it was her fathers house who passed away and it was near the lake so it has a lot of upside, but it had some flood damage to it.She said she wasn't in a rush to sell it but if the offer was good she would consider it, the thing that kinda confused me was she said the house is nice but the property value and the lot was where most of the value was.

1) I am currently paying the water bill, but I just pass through the cost in the rent amount.

I focus mainly on fix and flip type deals, but do a small amount of wholesaling also in addition to some new construction and buy and hold.

As @Theo Hicks has pointed out - focus on ROI and not on a $ amount.

@Jose Castillo I think negotiating with the seller is an option to offer him a lower amount on the property and then he pays off the HOA as a part of the sales transaction.

Reserves are the amount of principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, plus any HOA that are needed.  

You hand over a chasier's check for the amount of your bid or greater and they give you a constables deed (tax) or deed of trust (I believe this is what you get from the foreclosure auction).

Originally, I was trying to run my numbers so that I was financing the amount I needed plus the 20% equity, meaning finance $125,000 so that I could pay myself back the $100,000 and have that 20% equity, but the more I thought about it, this didn't make sense. 

This is likely the least amount of work that you would need to do on a property.Is the $40,000 all that you will have saved up in 2019?