How in the World does anybody make money with buy and hold????

[Mark Douglas]

I've been evaluating my first potential deal for about a week now. Owner-occ FHA 4plex. Pretty good location, steady tenants, etc.

I run it through the BP rental calculator..it cash flows $28.  Not enough to retire, but certainly better than forking over $700 each month for rent.  

Today, while window shopping for insurance, I realized I grossly underestimated the cost of investment insurance ....$221/mo is now making this seem impossible to work...  Maybe it's just this property, but for these numbers to really work, I'd have to lowball the seller. Like knock off $40k.  

Is that the secret?? Just paying super low prices for the properties??  By the time you add in every cost, I just don't see how anyone does it...

Sincerely,

- A newbie losing hope! (but my friends call me Mark)