On income property its different if its smaller its a headache and requires management but larger projects often hands off just a check in the mail and a cam report to go through every month.

and has done some other renovations since he has owned the house.

It was renovated recently, in a good area and a foreclosure so I can get it for cheap.Is there anyway to get this property under contract before the SDIRA is created.

Should I look buy something larger and do a 1031?

I am more familiar with Lowe's and I use the contractor desk which saves me between 7-12% on my larger orders.

It's a great concept & returns using the LTO concept are phenomenal.......we just had a couple walk away from 4 years of LTO payments (& $20,000 of renovations @ their expense) on a SFH.The week they gave us notice we already had a new couple sign up & move in without any downtime.

I struggled through Mech Eng with a minor in EE.Then ended up in drive control automation & traveled the world on contract jobs.But that minor in EE saved me a lot of $$$ when renovating homes esp splitting the services for myself & others.If you're serious about RE investment an engineering background will save you a fortune & give you valuable insight into structural re-design (assuming you take some design courses) when you blow out the walls etc of an older home or add a room above an attached garage etc.It's a great discipline & you will never regret finishing.

I don't yet have the ability to flip (poor at estimating renovation costs, not particularly good at design), but I can keep looking until I find a suitable bargain that I can rent out.

I am in the middle of a flip renov.

You will renovate the property and will expect that the property is then worth more than the combination of the repairs and the acquisition price you originally paid for it.The ARV is the value of the property after repairs.