That way, you'll be invested and will fight instead of quitting.

There are investors that do this kind of thing with HUD homes as well.They sign paperwork at closing that they are occupying the property.Another component of this is fraud to a lender on a loan if you say you will be living there.The reason is lenders give certain rates to owner occupants because statistically you will fight much harder to keep a place you live in.If it's just a bad investment it is easier to walk away hence a higher rate and more down.This property from what you said is 2,400 X 12 = 28,800By half is 144,000 at a 10 cap based on 50% costs.The carpet and paint the bank put lipstick on it it appeal to a home buyer living in one unit and driving the price up.On a quad typically you could expect about 8,000 for the siding,4,000 for the roof,6,000 for 4 outside A/C units,if interior bathrooms and kitchens are outdated about 4,500 by 4 units is 18,000,then water heater and heater about another 6,000 total.So conservatively I have about 42,000 in immediate CAPEX.Every areas cost is different so I am just throwing mine out there.Now the other you say 20 quads total is what you need to worry about.If there are a bunch of short sales and foreclosures from vintage 2004,2005 loans then the new purchaser with a cash offer or a small debt service will rent below market to fill quickly and turn more or the same monthly cash as you.So you starting out at 600 rent monthly might go to 550 or 525 in your development.I have seen this happen.I have also seen even if your building is well kept quality tenants do not want to live next to the other buildings where landlords put in suspect tenants to fill up.Also some landlords with high debt service will drop rent instead of repair to keep tenants so they won't spend tens of thousands out of pocket to rehab.

you come here asking questions (which is great), but then argue with those peoples' opinions...just so you know, as real estate investors, we always have risk..and any contraact can be used, just like any argument can become a frivolous lawsuit....and you being a fancy real estate investor with your expensive contracts fighting against a helpless defenseless homeowner in default doesn't make you look good in front of a judge...so let me try to see what you're doing...you want to purchase properties from motivated sellers sub2, correct?

I was able to fight all three years (2008-2010) at the hearing.

(Actually, a deed in lieu, the defaulted borrow didn't fight me.)

Adolph said it's difficult for average homeowners to fight against the power of developers and well-organized associations.

I get a call from the listing agent that the seller accepted my offer but we had to close in 2 days..... obviously not gonna happen since our loan was FHA so we lost the deal.I searched for the county treasurer, and then was able to find out who the attorney was and after 2 weeks of fighting with them i found out who the REO was, and then found out who the listing agent was.

Why are you fighting that?

I have a neighbor that decided to walk through his flooded basement of raw sewage and he is still fighting a staff infection in his privates years later.

Why is it in a market where you fight to overpay for property that real estate investors crawl out of the woodwork to start buying (like 2004 and 2005 where investors were content with sometimes less than 7% ROA) compared to the now very soft market when seemingly every investor I know or meet sits on their hands avoiding the best buyers market in years??