I think the primary difference is that in Commercial properties, lenders are more interested in the Cash flow and potential upside when deciding to finance and not little emphasis on buyers individual credit worthiness or cash in bank. ( Don't get me wrong, he/she still needs to show 30% down payment but that is not necessarily his/her personal income).Flip that to the residential side - Owner credit worthiness is the most important criteria and the residential asset is secondary.

@Julia ShevchenkoHi Julia, CLEARLY lease optioning isn't (and won't be falsely made) illegal, as 'rent to own' is already a HUGE business, with the same 1300ish global 'public company' preferred shareholders, working for the PTB.

The only real solution I can see is to spend the money to take many of the properties owned by holdouts via eminent domain, and simply bulldose entire blocks and even entire neighborhoods.I actually wrote a thesis on urban homesteading programs, with an emphasis on that in Minneapolis, MN.  

There seems to be a general concern of global economy, etc.What are your thoughts on how this climate is going to affect Real Estate market in the near future ? 

These commercial deals are cash flowing, the emphasis on the sponsor can be somewhat less, but when it comes to these house rehabs and flips, you have to be careful.

I definitely believe that bank-owned properties have a ton of value for investors all across the country, but because most investors are placing the emphasis on these and flooding these areas of the market, the home-owners are left with properties they can't sell because everything around it is going for so much less.

Remember, for every Microsoft, Intel and Google there's a Global Crossing and Enron.If you're going to own individual stocks, including your employer through an employee purchase plan, don't let it become more than 4% of your total portfolio.That said, I look at the following every day because I own them, for at least 20 years now, one has been a slam dunk winner, the other has done pretty good.

Online advertising is pretty much the best option for a global market.

I don't know if that's enough to keep a long term campaign going relatively passively without burnout.My affiliate network owner has also set his global redirect as one of my landing pages and we are splitting the money...this is nice because it costs $0 and throws off anywhere from nothing to $3000 per day (I get half).

Given the 'Global Warming' we are experiencing up here you should be seeing a sudden influx of Northerners heading your way.