Besides, I don't want any unplanned trips to the hardware store for a fitting or materials I discover I need when connecting a new appliance to existing plumbing/electrical.

I know I live in a crazy expensive market but building materials are pretty standard.  

You can only value engineer and negotiate so much on material.

If you have a wealthy uncle who would be willing to invest with you, why not partner up with him on your first property to dip your feet into the water while minimizing your risk and to retain as much of your money as possible for future investments.

The asset was single family reo for 150k and needs 20k material(cash) and sweat equity.

I had a retaining wall fixed a couple of years ago, and the handymen who gave me quotes gave me really high quotes (for a couple of hours of work), and said, "oh, well this quote means I will have to 1099 you."  

The material I am reading suggests NOT to have the leads call directly to my cell phone.

That said, most of the work I did was demo and haul away, I did not start installing any expensive materials until close and as such, had very minimal risk and saved some holding costs.Dot your i's and cross your t's, make sure you gave accounted for everything and then if the reward is worth the risk, proceed, if not, simply wait.

Also keep in-mind that any subsequent capital calls will also carry a premium (unless and until you build-up reserves in-country).It's true that your cashflow will gain a (25% at the moment) boost upon repatriation (BTW: you'll be taxed on that gain), but if your objective is to grow your U.S.A. holdings, you probably won't be repatriating retained earnings.FX exchange won't consume any significant amount ... but it is another hand-out each time you convert currency.It all comes down to math.

The BofA underwriter says that property owned by a flipper for less than 9 months is evaluated differently under their guidelines and they want to see our cost of material and labor for the improvements.