@Tim Hertz Congrats on your Duplex, that seems to be the common theme for Newbies.Your are correct, minimize risk by purchasing right and for me keeping emotions out of itThank you Tim.I have another offer I just put in on SFR, this one requires no rehab, essential a turnkey (not by real estate definition) I offered CASH (they say cash is king)Crossing my fingers Take care Brother 

You might also want to stop by Michael Morengello's Bay Area Wealth Builders (in Marin?).

I've gotten enough assistance from fema, red cross and personal interest free loans that I can wait out the gougers until they're starving and need to feed their kids again.  

Once I get enough for a downpayment to get the owner financing out of the way, refinance again, crossing my fingers the rates are still good!!!!

Fortunately, in my search for properties I recently crossed paths with a realtor who was also an investor.

I found the markets that I wanted to be in and I ran Google searches and cross referenced with Map Quest to verify I was getting all the facilities.  

That could really screw you on your resale of the property and when you resell the property I can almost guarantee you the standard buyer will go through escrow/title company and then you just cross your fingers that everything turns up clean.

@Todd Dexheimer, you'd better be knocking on wood when you say that:)I just did some cross sectioned analysis for a client based on income and appraisal taxation coupled with growth patterns.  

The red cross and FEMA offer assistance. 

That crossed the mind as well $$🏈$$