Thanks to you and kleinbl00 for weighing in. I have never watched any of those home improvement shows, that's certainly not my motivation. My motivation would be to see how I can make my money make me more money. The arithmetic could make sense, all the fixed costs are known. It's the unknown and variable costs that worry me. I have no intention of sweating. IF I were to do this I would use contractor for the entire renovation, even painting. Frankly, I just don't have time. Also, like KB suggested, the opportunity cost of my time is greater than what it would cost to pay a painter. Etc. What I am considering is to start really small. Buy a $50,000 house put 10,000 into it and see if we can squeeze out 80 or 90. Even if I ended up breaking even, I would count it a success. The first house would be all about learning. Then, if I like the process and if it did make money, I could repeat it. It's always fun to try new things. But, myself and my wife are stretched pretty thin on time. However, my partner's wife, a former real estate agent, isn't working and could probably handle much of the logistics. Literally, we would just be capital. I am cautiously considering.
"Really small" still means sinking tens of thousands of dollars and carrying a note for half a year. Again: is it not wiser to invest capital like that into something you understand? With large market forces at play, six month swings of ten and fifteen percent are not unusual... And there are large market forces at play. Real estate investment isn't particularly tricky. You sink capital into real property because real property appreciates long term. Real estate speculation is another matter: you're banking on 50k and 10k being worth 90k because you need it to, not because it has any reason to. And at those prices you're competing against sweat equity, which doesn't pay contractors and is willing to undersell you in order to get out from under their ARM. Dunno, dude. Buy rentals or commit to doing this stuff fer real. Half-hearted measures are a great way to lose money.