If you (or a significant other) spend every dime that makes it to your bank account, then the smart play is to continue contributing to your 401k.Your ambitions are good.

Listing agents already know how this plays out, they've been around a while, so they tell their client a story like the above, and in reality the client thus takes the $380k offer.You can in theory mitigate this reliability issue by paying the HUD Consultant and GC to do their thing ahead of writing your offer, this will run you over $1,000 a pop for each individual property you are considering, which typically someone that needs a 3.5% down FHA 203k loan simply does not have to throw around willy nilly. 

The typical reason is the value add or repositioning play. 

If you want to play in the portfolio world buying multiple notes at once then yes, there are large capital requirements. 

You’ll see if you dig that there is a constant need for good PMs...and it’s a very challenging, intensive business...but doable. 

If you were in similar situation how would you play your cards ?

There are an so many variables that come into play that the contractor can't control or even predict.

I don’t play a part in credit.

If you were in similar situation how would you play your cards ?

Remember that capital gains comes into play when you can no longer say you lived in the home 2 of the last 5 years.