Short sales can be a tricky nut to crack.Hope this helps. 

We still get visitors for ice fishing, snowmobiling, etc.

A person who's trying to replace their primary income source via real estate investing would be nuts not to get a license. $2k / year is an irrelevant sum of money.

Go to a park, go fishing or to a lake for a day, take a picnic lunch, go for a hike. 

I don't know all the markets in the US, but of the ones I do know, any properties bigger than a quad are usually few and far between and usually end up getting snapped up by bigger fish otherwise you probably don't want to touch them.Things I look for in a market are:- Good School District- Low Crime- Low Vacancy rates (aka few rentals available)- Employment- TransportationOthers may advise you to also look for appreciation forecast for areas.

People are nuts...protect yourself first!

Stop fishing for suckers to scam on BP.   

It is nuts...

happened in Detroit for various reasons. the homes folks are buying for 20 to 40k now in Detroit and rehabbing I was loaning 70 to 80k on them in 04. and that was 60% LTV then..So in my mind those that made it through were Extremely well capitalized or like many of my clients they own their rentals free and clear.. and they take the abuse of others telling them they are nuts to not leverage up..  

Sometimes you can buy something at a 6 cap fully stable with under market rents and increase rents and decrease costs to get an 8 or 8.5 cap etc.The syndicator you are planning on investing with needs to plan out exits and return of capital to the investors.I think a lot of stuff people are nuts paying those prices for things.