The appraisal is being done but I estimate the house to be worth around 320K.Is it possible to get a mortgage for 280K(270K for the house, 10K for the closing costs) if the house is worth over 300K?

Is there a general rule of thumb for estimating closing costs for commercial properties, ie % of purchase price?

Many investors simply choose to take a chance that the lender will never find out or they just dont realize there is such a clause.

BTW, chances are the VP is in charge of all lending, because it is a small bank.

You will have to get a unit cost list going for all types of material, and then you can just plug in your estimated time to complete the job.

Could you guys recommend some free software that determines the commercial property MAO based on the rents, expences and minimum profit? I can do it by hand, but it takes loooong...
Spreadsheet or Web-based applicati...

If you can't start from scratch and have good rapport with the community you are working with you don't have a chance.

So since you are familiar with short sales, you know how to fill out their balance sheet and see if they have a chance to save it by their positive cashflow....correct?...

So are you interests just this property or further in RE.You mention it needs 50k of work, but is that your estimate?

If a seller likes you, the chances of your offer getting accepted at a lower price increase significantly.8.