But the best ways to get started are, in my opinion: 1) save up enough for a 10-20% down payment and then save a lot more on top of that for reserves, overages, and any unforeseen repairs.    2) have your financial house in order and have credit above 700 to get more favorable rate and terms from lenders.   3) speak to a loan officer that is experienced with fix and flips and get the necessary documents together for a pre approval (typically not much required, usually a valid ID, LLC docs if any, and two months of bank statements showing funds for down payment and reserves). 

Not to mention reserves. 

I'm sure he did really well with the property - enough so that he could complain about the cost, yet pay it and stay in business- but, I wouldn't buy one unless you had serious reserves, just in case. 

By the 3 more years to qualify it means you are in the guard/reserves. 

Make sure to factor in 5-10% vacancy, taxes, insurance, mortgage, repairs & maintenance, lawn care, pest control, management fees, utility costs (goes in your name when vacant), turnover costs, and capex reserves. 

So if the property is $250,000 and it needs $50,000 worth of work, you would need $10,500 as your down payment (technically $10,675 as there would be "contingency reserves" baked into the renovation budget). 

If you want to break the USD, which dethrones USD as world reserve currency, which dethrones US as predominant world power.....

I'm not trying to squash your dreams but have lots of cash reserves if you decide to proceed. 

4- of course we'd want to verify it's permitted use per zoning5- Capex will need to be budgeted for a reserve account for tax purposes6- need to get the stage 1 and 2. 7- by subcontractor issues do you mean a mechanics lean on the property?

So, given you are in a lower end area with lower rents, you need to reserve more money on repairs, maintenance and capex compared to a higher rent area, since that $200 HVAC or plumbing service call is 25% of $800/mo, but 10% of $2,000/mo.