[LuxLiving]

Also Greedy, would you be the one doing the physical sweat equity or would you be hiring painters and such?

If a few buckets of paint and some elbow grease are all that's needed that is one thing. But if you're going to have to hire skilled workmen, roofers, carpenters, tile-layers, etc., then you must allow much bigger $$ figures in your calculations.

You could of knocked me over when we were given a bid of $5850 to paint the inside and outside of my fil tiny little house! SHOCKED I tell you. Guess we've been out of the fix-it up market for too long, last I remember a painter would ask for $600 to paint the outside of a house!

I had a friend who did rent houses years ago - he'd look at a property with a realtor and then if truly interested he'd schedule another day that he could get in the property and he called for all of his construction/painting contractors to meet him there at a certain time and get bids for repairs BEFORE he'd even make an offer on the house. Too costly to repair? - no go!