Hi All,I want to first start out by saying thank you to the many of you that I have had the chance to connect with through Bigger Pockets, both over lunch/coffee and here online.With that being said, over the past two years, my wife and I have virtually eliminated all of our "bad" debt and currently saving capital for our first real estate investment purchase.We have truly been committing ourselves to better understanding the in's and out's through our own research and are getting much closer to finally taking action.I am from San Diego, recently moved to Orange County, and I'm sure as many of you know the entry level capital required for investing in CA is quite high due to the cost of living (I could be completely mistaken as I only know the OC & SD market to an extent).

I will be at the 2yr mark in November of this year which would eliminate any taxes on the capital gain I have.

It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it.

Investors can’t eliminate market shocks, but they can hedge their bets against booms and busts with a diversified portfolio and strategy based on general market conditions.

It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it.

It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it.

Kerri - thanks for the  post ...consider  2 steps :1)  refinancing the  FHA loan to a conventional loan  to  eliminate the  FHA mortgage insurance  ..the  note rate might be  slightly higher than your present 3.875%  rate  but the  removal of the  FHA MIP  will likely leave you with a significantly lower  payment  that you have now  .2) use a  HELOC ( home equity line of  credit )  to  payoff  whatever  other  debts  need to be consolidated .....the  required payment on these  are  " interest only " payments so try to make a  larger than  required payment so the line balance can  decrease ......rates  are in the  5-7%  range ....interest paid  no longer can be written off  .......most lenders  will  go to a 90% cltv ( combined loan to value ) level on these  ( as long as you qualify)

A semi-flexible W2 that pays well seems to eliminate those bottlenecks.

Again I eliminate all routes that they can take before I send the notice, and I know this contributes to ZERO turnover.

It did not break the deal but it eliminated most doubts about the physical structure.