The units are stolen both for the copper inside and so other resale shops can profit from them.

Profit is income minus expenses.

If your buying/selling financining and holding costs are 15-20% that allows for a 10-15% profit.

When their comfortable, I'll sell back to them w/ a profit of around 5-10K (I'm a nice guy), plus I'll be making some cash monthly from rents.

I've given up on profit but want to be free and clear.

I was thinking of writing down a guideline with a series of checklists to have to help make the decision to purchase or not, what to do after the purchase, plans for marketing for rental or sale, etc...Here is my brief list:Pre purchase-Finding a property-Evaluating repairs-Evaluating market value-Evaluating prospective profit-Evaluate best way to financePost purchase-Immediate repairs (needed for habitation)-Long term repairs/upgradesWhat else???

Aside from the painting, you will have holding costs, advertising expenses, realtor fees and misc. sales fees to contend with---although your gross profits are in the neighborhood of 30%, your net will be something significantly different.

Cash back cannot be generated from thin air, despite what George Bush and Congress think.There are 3 simple things you could have done (and future newbies should always do) to have prevented this:Due DiligenceDue Diligence Due DiligenceThe only upside of this; (like the upside of the RE and S&L crash of the '80s) is that a lot of us, will make a lot of profit snapping up these deals for twenty five cents on the dollar in the future.

If you are looking to buy, refurbish and then sell you need the buy price to be at least 30% or more.Standard formula says:((ARV * 70%) - (all buying costs + all holding costs + all selling costs + all repair costs + contingency)) is the maximum you can pay and consistently make a profit.

If you really want to maximize your profits per deal do it yourself.