The area you circled on the map has never really taken off and is not favored by local investors.Richard

I’m developing cold feetA contract that favors the seller and a standard Minnesota contract for deed.

pricing these days for HML is based on experience  No experience pretty expensive  ..so in my mind first few out of the gate I would do this with an equity partner safer and less frustrating than trying to go HML  once you can show a few successful flips under your belt the HML route will be easier and less expensive..

Leaving 80K dead equity in this property will completely kill your real cash flow from the property.  

Looking for some info in either no money down deals or using a HELOC on my primary residence for purchasing income and/or equity producing properties.

And you'd have another cash flowing property with equity gains (hopefully) that would most likely outpace your future gains in the TSP. 

The math still doesn't work out to favor new construction, so there is obviously other factors I am not considering.

Hey I'm a newbie wholesaler and have listened to a lot of the podcast episodes on wholesaling to learn more about it.From some of those episodes there are people talking about you need a certain amount of equity in the house to make the deal work but I haven't heard a firm number on how much equity needs to be in a home to be able to do a wholesale deal and make a profit.Is there a specific number or is it different for every deal?

With the enhancements in technology as well as 17 years of sweat equity, we can usually create a pretty compelling ROI on buildings with a cost basis as low as $250k. 

This way, you do not have to marry (which is equity/LLC) before you date (set return).In the future, after this deal, if you guys work together seamlessly, then maybe create a new LLC.