befor you jump into this with both feet. be sure to check the tax laws in your state regarding capitol gains from realestate sales, although there are usually some creative ways to get around this, better to check first.
good point to check state tax laws, but fed is a whole new story. buy the house and live in it for 2-3 years and fix it in your own time. there is "no" fed tax on real estate capital gains if you live in the house 2 out of 5 years maybe 3 I can't remember for sure. but basicly buy and sell every few years and the profit is tax free as long as you meet the standards. check on it..
you need to dig deep also before you buy to make sure there isnt anything you dont know about the deed, siding goes a long way to value and is cheap materialwise if you can do it yourself, my brother does it back in pa but out here in san diego, christ houses run about 10x more, mortgage refinancing is a good deal right now but forget about buying
also, when it comes to buying land...check into the local building laws. you might be offered a great deal on a piece of property that is say 1.2 acres and at the price you just can't pass it up. but reason why it is such a great deal, is because in order to build in that are you have to have a lot that is at least 1.3 acres. and by only having 1.2 acres, you are short by .1 acres, and the piece of land becomes useless because you dont have enough land according to building codes to build on it.