Understand that insurance is designed to insure catastrophe, but has evolved to the point that we expect to be insured for leaky faucets (ok, I'm over exaggerating here)The question to ask yourself is: would I have to put in a claim to replace damage caused by a falling tree or a broken washing machine hose if the damage was, say, $2500.

I had a bald-faced hornet's nest attached to a tree and the removal was DIY, based on a youtube video.

Things like roofs, water heaters, A/C units gone bad, tree roots in the sewer line, etc.Let's say this property rents for $1,000 / month.

You're barking up the wrong tree by trying to change title to the property.What you're bumping into is "jump and dump".

You can go to a suburb of Portland (Beaverton) and get a great condo (where I live) 1500sf 4br 2 bath dbl gar heat pump, nice setting with trees and trails for 12-1300 per mo.

Jonathan look up the taxes and divide by 12 to get monthly tax costs.Look for the HOA docs to see if there is an assessment and how much.Usually if you find a listing on MLS in that subdivision there will be some houses and it will list association dues monthly or yearly.For instance if taxes are 1,000 and HOA 1,500 then you have about 208.33 a month in costs.If you buy for 4,000 and hold for 2 years you have to get at least 9,000 in 2 years time to break even and even more with closing costs etc.That money will be dead not generating a return for you.You also need to know the soil sample and build ability of the lot.This will be a factor from who buys from you if they want to build a house.On the MLS you can see what developed lots are selling for.Is this lot developed and cleared with pipes sticking out of the ground or does it still have all the trees and uncleared and ungraded in it's natural state??

It needed a furnace heater installed as it didn't have one or the venting needed for it, the water heater was in the kitchen not separated by any walls, a giant tree was growing into the foundation causing it to be very bumpy and cracked, about 1/4 of the INSIDE of the house was stuccoed, and a lot of the house wan't up to code.So, it was basically a brand new house needing to be built.

I recently purchased a house which managed by Action Property Managment.During inspection of home, inspector addressed several trees are causing foundation issue with their roots and many vegitations are not taken cared at all.I pay assotion fee which includes common area (my front yard) to be maintained by association (managment company).After contacted the APM about 2 month ago, they promised to take care issue yet nothing has been done.

I've done it many times, primarily in 2009 when everyone was scared to buy any real estate so discounted property was just "falling from the trees".That doesn't happen so much anymore.

- People like the relative security and stability of a paycheck- it takes some money to get started, not everybody has it- You will technically be a business owner, that's for sure not everybody's cup of tea- scared, like Rob said; not knowing enough or not interested in investing the time to learn enough- If people have money to invest, they like to diversify and not put all the eggs into one basket/house.