I performed standard due diligence on the HOA/building looking at reserves, budget etc.

Expect to lose all of them consistantly and factor in your budget is my newbie take.

It will teach you everything from plumbing to budgeting.

Such may be applicable if you were buying truck loads of sheetrock and plywood storing it in a warehouse for future use.

If you're trying to get into a deal quickly I would suggest reading up on BP about marketing to sellers and then put together a marketing plan that fits your budget.

I got started wholesaling 9 months ago with a very limited budget, writing my own letters, posting ads on Craigslist 3 times every day, and I got 2 deals in my first 2 months.

Maybe I will push it to 10 and up my marketing budget.

But I don't want to put granite in if that means over improving for the area (which I think it is).It will most likely be an exercise whereby I do a walk-through with the contractor and decide what is feasible and what is not based on my budget.

Recently, both CNN and CNBC released lists of their favorite financial apps (access the CNN list here and the CNBC list here).A few apps that we found interesting are:SavedPlus – Gives users the ability to transfer a percentage of every purchase into a savings account, making saving automatic.Simple – This online and mobile-only bank charges no monthly fees and provides robust budgeting tools and mobile money-transfer options.Spendee – Has a simple interface that gives users an at-a-glance way to monitor their budget.Wallaby – Helps maximize credit card reward potential by alerting users to which card to use when shopping.

So needless to say the contractor had to adjust the bid and keep it under budget.