I visit that area a few times a year and the property was vacant and all the items that were to be completed were not.

Comparing cost for an IRA vs 401k, at least one real estate SDIRA pays 2% on holdings; however they charge fees for every little item, and their lack of email security is quite extravagant.  

As long as you used the gift cards all up and promptly, I would probably staple your gift card receipts (showing you paid $90) to all your receipts of items purchased, and then just put it all in as one general journal entry with the $90 to your capital account (or if it came our of your business out of your biz checking account), and then the items you purchase multiplied by 0.9 either to repairs OR to increase the basis of the improvements which you would then depreciate.

If you plan on running a student rental, put in the heaviest duty bathroom items you can muster.  

I really appreciate the action items you suggested.

The good news is the publisher has a store on Alabama where you can check it out.http://keymaps.com/index.cfm?

Like most I also have business ideas revolving real estate but I believe that in order to start any business you need to be an expert on your field.I currently live in Newark NJ I had to go back to work for documentation purposes and me and my brother own a family business that’s been passed down to us and we currently grew to a store front in Furniture Upholstery, my original plan is to purchase my first investment using a FHA 203K loan on a 3 family for cash flow, I also have an investor willing to give me $10,000 so I was planning on using his money for holding cost I’m going to put up the 3.5% down payment and closing cost.

From what I understand about Wholesaling and I can be wrong on that score too, is that you create a contract with a seller to purchase the home, then find a buyer to purchase the same house and then sell the contract at a higher price, that's about it in a nutshell, and I can not figure out how it can be done at the HUD Home Store.com but oh well, I did a check on my credit score and found out its higher then what I thought it was, my FICO Score is 580 instead of 545, which now qualifies me for a FHA Loan with some mortgage companies, my wife is now really excited to say the least, so I really need to understand how the HUD Home Store really works.

He has been in business for 25 plus years and has relationships with all the big stores as well as the specialty stores.

IMO its important to have a good down payment, and adequate reserve, to deal with vacancies and larger maintenance items that can occur.