So I am starting to think that renting it out might be a better idea.....no real point in selling it for less than $10k profit.

I usually just held on to the property as long as possible, with or without tenants, and sold to make a decent profit.

You'll have to come to terms with forgoing some of your profits---you'll need to quantify the rewards/risks for taking this approach.

I would like my first investment to be a small flip where i can get a good profit and gain experience.

I've found profitable deals on the mls, but not often.

This is GOOD for the short sale BAD for the appraisals when your trying to sell it for profit.

WH.....this is good, but again i am thinking on a couple things here, only wanting to make things flow as simply as possible with little to no gliches at the end of the transaction....i'll try to explain what i mean and maybe i'm speaking for many out there that are making some attempt to find success in this endeavor....in regard only to a short sale transaction the following occurs:property owner (let's call this person the "seller") allows for an individual (let's call this person the "buyer") to "purchase" the property merely for the sake of the "buyer" moving forward to deal with the loss mit people at the lender.as time moves along, this "buyer" gets written confirmation of the lender accepting the "price" offered via the customery HUD-1.now let's say for illustration purposes the "approved" price the lender has agreed to is $250000, the value of the property seems to be in the neighborhood of $350000 and the "buyer" wants to "double escrow" this bad boy for $300000 (generating a clean $50K profit)......in this illustration/scenario the question remains: "what is the cleanest, simplist" way to accomplish this?

I said ok, send me your counter offer.My question(s) is:How should I have structured my offer to AVOID a counter offer and how should I respond to the seller's counter offer if it cuts into myprojected profit?

Find the best ROI range.Thus meaning how much the initial investment is vs the cash flow income vs. actual profit!

Have the title company prepare a 'release', which you sign at close, releasing the sellers from their contract with you, for a fee equal to your profit.