If either #1 or #2 are in play then you want to send an immediate signal that you aren’t defenseless.

He’s doing some marketing specifically playing up the fact that a cabin in the woods is a pretty safe place to ride out something like this... haha... sad but true.

Now that you have $X, $y, and $Z, you can play around with the offer price to see what the return would look like. 

Purchase price: $187,000 Cash invested: $15,000 abandoned house, FHA Renovation loan thru credit union, 90% repaired in 60 days, cashed out with a heloc to buy another property, and am cashing out again now at 6 months with a refi to go play in the big city next.

I had never bought from HUD so I just thought I'd play and offer a bid.

Far too many appraisers rush things or play it overly safe to protect themselves and the lender, which is understandable. 

There are many small variations of this.

Having a rough idea of what interest rate you can expect is crucial for you to play well in this game.There are many factors that determined your interest rates including base rate (update daily), loan amount, location, LTV (loan to value ratio), credit score, house type (single family vs condo) etc.So to help yourself estimate, you can talk to your friends who have done mortgage recently and ask about their rates and how they get them.

Wholesaling (Which is really contract assigning as most think of it) is sort of playing in a loop hole.

The seller actually played my offer against another investor.