In many ways it is much more similar to gambling than real estate, unless one's real estate strategy relies purely on speculation.

I don't know how much it cost you for renovation, but most of these homes are pure cosmetic rehabs that I can get done for $10k to $15k easy, and that still puts me in the $49k bracket.

If not, finding a tenant getting them to sign anything, then taking that to an owner and getting them to sign anything, is acting as a leasing agent, pure and simple, you are attempting to circumvent licensing laws with a BS paper shuffle, doesn't matter what you call your documents.

@Mark i really appreciate your naivety and lack of pure investment soundness :p @Chris we have some neighborhood organizations but i think theyve been exhausted and havent really done much for years- they need to be restructured, revamped..We a huge church community, a large beautiful motherhouse for the sisters of josphine of carondelet- here is a link to their site.

It is not often (in fact, to my knowledge, not ever) that you will find an event of actual pure education and networking with actual real life investors who do this for a living.

The only way to really take risk on these buildings is to assume you have a solid set of bones or go by outside condition and figure everything inside needs to be replaced. running numbers on anything but this would be pure un educated gambling.

I'v always thought your basis was purely purchase price/acquisition costs.

This is purely personal preference, but I'd probably wait 6 months before raising any rent, and then just do it one tenant at a time (based on their renewal date or something) so if they do leave, you won't be faced with 4 vacancies :) Also - I would find out how much you can really get for rent from these places (maybe place some "test ads" on craigslist and see who calls, and look for comps, as you have.)Good luck!

Sure housing can be manipulated to some degree, but it's based more on pure supply demand.

I feel there are several years left before I need to replace the shingles, and that it is unreasonable to expect a homeowner to replace something as expensive as a roof based purely on sun darkening of the shingles.