I know it can vary by market but are there any general guidelines, rules of thumb that people are using?

You can purchase one parcel with the home on it and apply for a home improvement loan to acquire the other later on.

And I work in the home improvement industry!

I understand this is a loaded question and most of the people on this forum are quite busy, but as a newbie who is only equipped with capital and a vision, what is the “rule of thumb” I should remember as I start out?

A sophisticated investor and a syndicator must have pre-existing relationship though in order to allow one to join a syndication based on this rule.

There is a lot of room for improvement on this property.

I guess they would get to collect interest until I pay it off or they get the property back plus the interest if I don't but still...Also, the Ada county auction listings seem to indicate payment due by end of business Thursday (so 4 business days after auction ends basically).And I found this document from Bannock county indicating they expect payment on the day of the auction. https://www.bannockcounty.us/wp-content/uploads/ta...I haven't been able to find much info on idaho statute 31-808(3) actually being used, so I guess for now I'll assume it's rule saying counties can do it if they want but none of them seem to be doing it. 

You Can Catherine but you will come up invariably upon the Self Sufficiency Rule (or SS Rule).

So at that point I could probably argue we were still under “market” a bit at the new price, but seeing as I’m already over the 2 percent rule by a lot at the current rent an extra 50 bucks doesn’t do much for me

He wont give one , and tells them they have road frontage , they dont need an easement . ( wetland rules make it about $250,000 to build a road 400 ft ) .