There were some code violations from a car hitting the house and other neglected maintenance that we inherited when we bought the property, although the bank paid off the fees up to the date of sale.

I'd start with house hacking.

House-hack, house-hack, house-hack.

Purchase price: $125,000 Cash invested: $10,000 I purchased this house 12 years ago and turned it into an Airbnb.

Let's do a quick (I hope) and dirty look at it:1 - 100k SFH bought with a standard NOO Mortgage at 5% which rents for $1k, and lets assume; that unicorns exist and fart rainbows, you have 100% Lease Up, and $0 for repairs for the first, lets say, 5 years on all of your properties, and that we buy everything on the first day of the year.Year 1: You Spend 30k to purchase house, you owe 70k your payments are: 376 a month giving you a free cash flow of 1000 - 376 = $627!

Make sure it is clear you're a interested in buying their house ASAP with your phone number very easy to see.

The easier way is to establish a relationship with a portfolio bank (commercial lending) no limit to the number of houses you can own.Better yet, do something like what I do: I don't use banks at allAverage Cash Flow Per Door In Phoenix Metro Areahttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/600/topics/58...

Purchase price: $198,000 Cash invested: $70,000 Sale price: $340,000Full rehab of the 2 bed, 1 bath house including a new kitchen, bath, refinishing the hardwood floors and other updates.

This is from the IRS "a house purchased for use as rental property is placed in service when it is ready and available to rent, even if it is not actually rented at that time."

Months passed and ABC kept saying that house was “very close”.