I am also taking online classes paying thousands of dollars every semester on a degree i can care less about which is really not gonna change my salary it will probably drop it if i decide to use it.

sounds like you have a great opportunity. i recommend the contact for deed route. as you mentioned you can get a lower down and more flexible terms. if you can get a 10-12 year ballon payment you should have no problem refi'ing out prior to that with a conventional loan and pay off owner contract. i would try to get the per unit down. you could try to show the total amount you would be paying when you add interest into the equation and see if he will come down on asking price, at least to market if not below. as well as play up the continued cash for with zero management headaches. ultimately if it cashflows well and you have good fixed debt for 10 plus years my experiences has been that price per unit is less of a factor. cash flow is king.

Some things to look out for are the fees. environmental fees, excessive weight fees, another trick of the industry is billing cycles. some will bill monthly so you are billed 12 times a year others may bill every 4 weeks so you get billed 13 times a year (52 weeks/4= 13 bill)based on my experience the big guys tend to play ball and kill on volume to shut out little guys. also these little guys rely on the big guys station to dump, so they charge a base fee and mark it up or put add on to make money.

My online bank now pays 1.5% which isn’t great for an investment but is good for savings accounts.

Many REO's have an online system to submit offers that go directly to the asset manager making the decision, and the REO agent, is acting as more of a property manager.

This deal specifically would have only been a $72k purchase but then it would have ended up being a $160-165k listing for me in a few months, so that came into play as well.

Also, find out if your city has code violations and eviction data online or otherwise available.

Aside from Biggerpockets (which is a great online resource no doubts there!)

We track the foreclosure in the county's online court records system.

Even if you hired a designer as well you’d still save money versus paying the $50,000 .Searching listings online for homes that have sold as flips and see what kind of design they use or go to open houses of flipped homes .