They've worked hard to pay the properties off and now they've got a tremendous amount of equity and cashflow on which to retire.

As long as the yard looks nice (trimmed) and clean there is no need to spend extra money on these type of things when you are going to sell.If the house is old and is wood - adding siding can make it look tremendously better and raise the value significantly.Do you have any ideas that you are concerned about?

I charged a $10,000 option fee to hold the price steady for 6 months in a wildly escalating market in DC, 2003, which was a fair option price.

It's cut my phone bill down tremendously.

Likewise I agree that the Houston Real Estate Market is very efficient with tremendous values accross the board.

HOWDY YALLGarGus it sounds like the Austin area is making a good comeback or at least the start of one.I remember when I took my ABR over there everyone was dealing with contract wars and then the high tech crash came.BCS is still riding the wave and building is going on everywhere.Especially in the commercial arena.Land has gone up steadily which has escalated prices but this area is still undervalued compared to most of the places folks are coming from.It is common to see people buying with a good chunk left over from their out of state sales proceeds.Investors in rental properties are not as happy as they once were as the escalated prices are making it hard to get a good return without putting more in.The junker market has alot of inventory for those that rehab.Some Ive seen as low as 22000.The lots are usually good size.(10000 sq ft and bigger).Locations most of the time are iffy.High end rehabs are coming into the picture more now.Wealthy College kids live in and trash expensive homes that their folks buy and then wind up selling them cheap to cut their losses.Ilove this country.Well im off to NYC for 2 weeks of R&R with the family.Hope yall write a bunch of clean deals while I'm gone.Adios.Jennysh thanks for the website on your condo hotel its a beauty!

We thought we wanted to be rid of the hassles of managing our own, but realized that we spend a whole lot more time managing our properties out of state then when we manage them ourselves-and it is tremendously more costly to hire a PM, as they like to just throw your money out the window, and into their bank accounts!

I suspect it has because many people who hear these figures say “yeah, right, no investment would be that much… and if it, the risk is probably tremendous.”

Are they a tremendous amount of work, and do the lenders lean on you real hard, as regular sellers can do sometimes, or are they less cumbersome then dealing directly with a seller who lives in the home?

This is a tremendous opportunity!!