If so, appreciate if you would indicate the actual cost for your project.Hi Louis, No I did not move forward with this as it was cost prohibitive for the moment.

They renovate it with their own contractors to save costs.3.

I won't ever close on another OOS property without walking it first but that involves paying for lots of flights and hotel/rental car costs if flying out there to make an offers but the $1500 to $3000 would be worth the cost to me to save on future headaches. 

A french drain typically costs around $25-$30 per linear foot.

If you have limited funds, how are you going to flip the worst properties out there that cost the most and are the hardest to flip.I know social media makes it looks like no-money and low-money down investing is feasible, but probably 95 percent of the deals that are done like that are done by people with money because it's the leverage money gives them to make a deal like that to the benefit of the seller.Don't rush to get a third property that needs work on your ledger when your funds are already limited.

We want to rent out the basement as a one-bedroom apartment to defray the mortgage cost.

Since you're purchasing it under market value, you shouldn't have an issue getting it appraised at $145K.The seller would net $140K and the additional $5K would be seller's concession towards broker commission and closing costs. 

They don't build a proper reserve, failing to account for turnover costs, vacancies, capex, etc.

If you are buying a high cost property with litle to no cash flow, you likely don't have to worry about paying tax on rental income since your depreication will wipe out any cash flow from being taxed.

The cost should be less than $1,000.