I have a fulltime gig w/ a bank in Center City area making 60k. i have no debt [paid off school loans] and a credit score of 750. currently, I do not own any RE.

That leaves a ton of room for mistakes, market corrections, etc. as well as more room to add debt financing and other higher holding cost factors.In todays tighter rehab spread market (at least here in CA) a good deal is at 75% and I have even done them as high as 80% but only when I was 100% confident of a first week full price offer on the re-sell, and the rehab was very light and very quick.Example, late last year, I paid $305k for a property that took me only $8k to rehab and it only took 10 days.

It is the oldest RE website on the net with a large, active community.Again, my only connection is to know some of the people who participate in the discussions and I paid real money to buy the manual.

So I finally gave in a paid him $20.00 to cut the grass.

They are refusing to refund my 8 pre-paid, unused, phone months as well.If anyone else is in that position here, please pm me.

I figure there are three options: (1) get an agreement from him, get it inspected, buy it for cash - that would be ultra-fast and get him out of trouble - only of course I don't have $180K lying around (2) help him get paid up for all his debts in exchange for him selling the house to me, and then I get traditional financing - what are the exact steps here, though?

With builders and developers offering all sorts of incentives like Paid Closing Cost, New Appliance Packages, HOA Fees Paid for 1 to 2 yrs, Mortgage Paid for 1 to 2 yrs... it's very easy to see why properties are staying on the market for longer times.

Even if a bank will go to 100% LTV they're going to want the closing costs to be paid for (upfront, by you).

My vehicles are paid for.

It is a paid education while you build other sources of income.