Real estate question

I found a house for sale that is listed at $30,000 below the county's last appraisal for property taxes. The place is bank owned and I figured it had to be trashed, but at that price I had to take a look. So I got a showing with my realtor.

The place has some flaws, but it was much better than I had anticipated. I've looked at a lot of bank owned properties and it's rare to find one that's clean and in good shape. This one looks good. You could live in it the way it is. To be nice it needs some paint and minor wall repair. It could use a new bath tub, but the rest of the bathroom looks good. The house was built in the 1920s and it still has the original wood frame windows. The central air unit looks old and rusty, but it may well still work. It has a detached 2 car garage that is original to the house. You can only get one car in it because of the way the door is set up. Needs a little fence repair in the back yard, but that looks to be a 2 hour job at most.

I'm thinking about buying it as an investment property; either to rent or flip. I'd like to flip it and be done with it, but I know what the market is like right now. If I rent it and hang on to it until market conditions improve I face the possibility of the tenants trashing the place. I've flipped houses before, but I've never been a landlord. If I do nothing I could miss out on a good opportunity.

What do you think?

I suggest you pay an option fee w/ a 10 day option period to allow inspection/s by a professional/s. If you decide not to purchase the property before the option period ends, you're only out the fee plus whatever you've paid your inspector/s.

Of course, I live in Texas, so maybe other states don't do real estate like we do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_fee