Trulia’s valuation measurements comes from looking at prices compared with the historical norm in each market.Real estate investors in California that rely on hard money lenders to finance their new purchases and refinances have been hitting the appraisal hurdle pretty hard.

The biggest pain in the *** I ever knew threw me for a loop once when he said to someone thank you for your opinion, it has given me something to think about.

What if I spend the rest of the cash I have on hand to make the biggest “bang for my buck”, and instead of taking out credit cards, try and squeeze any equity out of it with a HELOC.

(If you don't have those, you can get reasonably priced cards from Vista Print).The biggest thing that almost everyone does wrong is to sit there (in their comfort zone) and not meet people.  

My biggest challenge is getting started with limited funds, I have 100k in equity in my home but would like to start out without tapping into it.

Without the financing hurdles, check with your insurance carrier.  

That is really where the biggest problem will be.  

Biggest downfall is I dont have the capital and that is a huge deal to creative finance.  3.2m asking price, looks like a 1-1.5m renovation.

It's a good bet that the places that saw the biggest declines will still be the weakest come the next market decline unless they've had some major changes (neighborhood revitalization, new public transportation options, etc).  

A down payment is a HUGE hurdle for he and his fiance.