I receive 10% statutory interest on them and treat them like CD's.

I tell myself I'll treat it more like an investment, and spend less personal time doing repairs if it's remote.

Treat BP as another course while continuing your degree and you will be rewarded for putting in the effort and taking the time to see how real estate really occurs (and not just how they teach it at University)!

But, I like to treat EVERYTHING associated with the flip as COGS, just to make it easier, since then I report all the income and deductions in the same year (when I sell). 

@Kris Jones how is the market treating you down in Southern Utah?

The IRS will treat the LLC as a partnership for tax purposes, so you will need an accountant to provide you with K-1 statements at the end of the year. 

Because I have chosen tenants who are COLLECTIBLE and who pay their bills on time, I have found out over the years that if you treat rent as a bill, the tenants will pay on time.

But 2-4 units are often treated very similar to single family homes.

Depending on the extent of the termite damage and whether or not it was treated (it should have been since the owner disclosed knowing about it but clearly did not keep up with maintenance), we estimate it will take $5k - $10k just to have the major issues fixed and safety hazards resolved, let alone actually improving the property to make it more desirable or able to bring in higher rents.I am going to submit a list of repairs and try to get the seller to at least pay for the major repairs and the issues breaking code.

Having done hundreds of BPOs over the years, I can tell you that a lot of deals die here either because the real estate agent/investor treat the BPO as an inconvenience or something that they can manipulate at will or because of politics on the lender/AMC side.