I used to live in Beverly and work out of Salem, so I know those markets well.What should I target?  

So how did it all work out?

Maybe it'll work out for you but having negative cash flow bugs me even though my wife and I can afford it. 

If I would be doing rentals I would also be buying a job... granted, with the right properties, they would be less maintenance intensive than the car wash, i'm sure. 

I was wondering how this would all work out there are going to be people out of work for extended amount of time and as we know most renters miss one week of work and they are broke.My other big thing I am wondering @Greg H. is how the lenders are going to handle the owners who get wiped out have no insurance and walk away from the property.. knowing how aggressive Texas lenders can be with deficiency judgments on mortgage defaults..

Our numbers dont work out until about $500K is it unheard of to go in at such a lower offer?

I also plan to do this just on a deal by deal basis, at least at first, so that if things don't work out, I can take my money elsewhere.

It will work out

When I work out the numbers, especially for option 2, this seems to be a pretty bad property to keep as a rental in terms to cash flow.

@Tiffany Allen if it doesn't work out I would use the BP list of hard money lenders.