I began by calling the bank and asking for their loss mitigation department, which leads to a line that hangs up on you 100% of the time

The good news is that the municipality has already done all of the mitigation work to resolve any future flooding issues but I need to wait until FEMA reflects this on their maps which could take up to 2 years.I did get a great deal on this place but it has been on the market a couple of weeks with only one offer that ended up falling through.

They finance everything (or lots of stuff) and *also* have lots of cash (or other secure, liquid investments) to mitigate a good bit of downside.

The former you can mitigate by choosing the correct broker; the latter you can mitigate by not breaking the (likely very reasonable) rules.

Agreed with Jon...Keep in mind that a large % of the expenses are going to be taxes, insurance, vacancy, property management, and maintenance.The part you're talking about (capital expenses) can be mitigated in the short-term, but keep in mind that if you hold a property for 5 years, that means the new buyers are going to be 5 years closer to needing a new roof, new mechanicals, etc, so they will factor that depreciation into their offer.The best way to save on expenses short-term (in my opinion) is to do your own property management and save 10-18%.

IE buyer defaults seller does not own the home takes seller a long time to get home back and if seller does not have money to pay payment sellers credit is trashed.Account Closed  you can mitigate seller not paying the bank  that's easy.

I took time to understand the risks, mitigated them, and ultimately only had to deal with one moderate hiccup.  

And yes, this plan can take a decade or more ... if you want get rich quick, don't go into RE, but warning that get rich quick usually results in get broke quick because the risk you take on not being coupled with investment skills to mitigate them.

I think its mold, but I want to get others opinions on what it is, and how much it would cost to remove/mitigate it. 

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