Looked into conventional but can't finance the construction upgrades, and would need 25% down on non-owner occupy investment property + reno, or about $100k to pull it off.

I am close to pulling the trigger on Excalliber as well.

Marie Poe gave you a great example.When I approach this type of situation I like to have more in depth info before I propose solutions to the seller. ( sellers expectations, wants & needs, current rent, market rent, expenses, existing loan balance & terms etc.)It would be cool if this transaction could be done using your IRA (or someone else's) to buy an option.

Every lender will want to pull your credit to qualify you, and you don't want too many inquiries (or at least try to keep them within a 30 day period, 14 days is even better).

That would mean that I'd need to pull comps and hope it was already listed at a discount and then start my offers at 75%ish, to make the numbers meet the 70% ARV less repairs and holding costs, and the price that we aim for.

I just pulled the Extended listings for the whole state and roughly 60 out of 275 had an "As-Is" value of 0.

When we pulled up the old carpet and pad we found these holes all around the edges of the rooms.

If there have been smokers resident in the house long term, you may end-up pulling/replacing sheet rock in some rooms {i.e. where they primarily smoked} to get rid of the residue.

You might use the keyword search feature at top right to pull up results.

I tried my best to get them to sell and downsize then but they really missed the boat - they weren't ready to pull the trigger and it seems like with most good deals in RE, you snooze . . . you lose.