I'm reading through @Brandon Turner's book on Rental Property Investing. Good stuff!

Brandon calls out that the vast majority of properties out there are terrible investments. And lists a hypothetical buying standard of, among other things, only paying up to 80% of what a property would normally be worth. He also has a section on asking "how can I?" rather than saying "I can't".

Putting it all together, I'm looking for thoughts from BP on how I can find some great rental deals on SFRs or small MFs in the Austin area, where I can buy at 80% or less of FMV.

One newbie thought I have is to work with flippers as a lender with an option to buy the rehabbed property. If flippers generally limit their buys to 70% ARV - Costs, in theory, there could be enough meat on the bone for the flipper to make a spread even if he/she sold the property to me at 80% of FMV post-rehab.

My main potential value-add at this time is capital. Consequently, I'm wondering if I can provide enough value to a flipper, through finance terms, to make that deal potentially attractive. 

Along those lines, do flippers tend to sell via an agent on the MLS post-rehab? If so, I suppose another value add would be to potentially save the flipper some sales commissions, as well as an ability to close quickly if I exercise my option to buy at 80% of FMV.

Cheers,

Ethan