Most preforeclosures will not have enough equity to do much with, so sifting through all of them to find the ones that do have equity will be essential.The pro's of a preforeclosure is that the seller is motivated.

I found this website just a few days ago and have been sifting through all the posts and has helped me out a great deal. the plan is to start as whole saling by creating my buyers list while im searching for deals. after my first deal going with an LLC and net working with the people i meet that i call from newspaper and other venue's.

So - even after I sift through the losers, theres gonna be some good ones left.

A GRM is a basic appraisal method and can be a valuable tool to sift through the multitudes of potential deals, BUT you should ALWAYS run an actual income and expense statement on a rental property before you make an offer.On a side note, the 1% number is the general break even point to have positive cash flow with typical financing.

We are responsible for all the legwork, all pre-loan information and sifting out of qualified clients falls to us.

I don't know about this first-hand, but here is a website that might help you sift through the details and processes:http://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/

When I am working on purchasing I probably spend 20 or 30 hours a week sifting thorough the auction properties, driving them, comping them, and then preparing the bids.

I mean, I'd still use the 50% rule and 2% rule to do quick calculations, but only to quickly sift out the bad ones.

At best this property would break-even.San Fransisco has an (overall) average rent-to-value ratio of about 0.4% -- far below what an investor can get in other markets with stronger economics and lower purchase prices.I think eventually you'd find a piece of property with a positive cash-flow, but the length of time you'd have to spend to sift through enough properties to find that "diamond in the rough" would make the effort questionable.Additionally, the very high land cost under those properties carries a high level of exposure and risk for any investor since the first thing to drop when the housing market turns and cycles down are land values.I hope to meet you one of these days Ben. :-)Continued success!

Every couple weeks I sift through the trash to confirm and the result is the same each time.