Turnkey Real Estate and ARV

[Cole Perry]

Hey biggerpockets community,

I am a new member and was hoping to get some advice when it comes to turnkey REI investing. Unfortunately I live in the bay area (CA) and am priced out of investing here so I am looking out of state (Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Indiana).

One of the things I have been thinking is turnkey RE investing too good to be true? I mean, they have to make money off of you somehow right? I keep reading all these posts about how they will try to mark up their houses to out of state buyers, not fix up CapX items in the reno, etc).

I have narrowed my thinking down to the $ they make with their renovation and ARV %. I don't have a huge budget, so doing the renovations myself is out of scope...

Technically, if you get an appraisal and the house is not overpriced, and there are no majors issues via an inspection, wouldn’t it still be a good deal? (Assuming you cash on cash, location, market, etc all check out). 

I know that I will not be able to make money on the flip (it takes $ to make $), but wouldn’t you guys agree that as long as your not getting ripped on the purchase turnkey is still a viable investing option? Is there anything else that I’m missing here?