RE is a numbers game.

It's nearly impossible to see every difficulty that may present itself... anything from Mechanical failures, Roof problems, Electrical or Plumbing problems, Structural issues, etc.Most importantly... know your end game.

Brian Gibbons, thank you; I have watched a few of your youtube videos, as well as read "real estate rewind".

Haven't been able to get financing because we can't put skin in the game, so we gotta get creative.Our plan is to talk to the seller about doing seller financing, with the seller paid their interest (and the principal, of course) when the property sells post rehab.....so that would take care of the seller.  

If they are, the have some skin in the game to make this project a priority.

This would definitely increase your cash flow position and you would have more skin in the game for the mortgage lender.A couple years down the road, you could do a HELOC to pull cash out for your next wealth-building purchase.Good Luck!

I just read books and watch YouTube videos.

This is proper financial management and should not have to be making LARGE funds to do this but a good tip.Found this good tip, in a one min. video series of 20 personal finance tips,at vimeo.com/banktv"BANK TV have 20 videos, a 1 min. video series of 20 different bank and personal finance videos/tips.

@Lynn M.I will agree that a tenant with good credit is better and playing the waiting game is a better strategy for many property owners, especially for properties in high demand.For those who own property in less desirable areas where the applicant pool is smaller or in situations where paying the mortgage without collecting rent would put the owner in a bad financial position, I think simply checking for judgments and criminal records is good enough.Of course I'm willing to accept a higher degree of risk than most property owners because my costs are lower due to the fact that I process my own evictions and many times do the clean-outs/repairs myself.I've learned that it is good idea to at least check for non-existence of rental judgments because that is a sign that either they will leave the property when asked or that they've never rented a property before in their own name because they are young.

The main point is that you can sift thru hundreds of blogs,videos ,how to,s and have plenty of community members ,from the new to some very experienced and successful members You can have your deals analyzed, legal questions answered,wholesaling,marketing almost any topic that you can think of.