And in a catastrophic downturn you can lose a property or two and not hurt your retirement life style. 

For me, it is a single family ranch style home with 2/3 beds and 1.5/2 baths that smells funny and needs the carpet ripped out.

I suspect now its going great one of the centers was BRAND NEW CONSTRUCTION.. but the 600 homes that were suppose to go in next door got shelved. in a 08 style melt down NOTHING is immune some areas trundle through other areas its mass extinction. 

I recently attempted a 2 second Canadian style brrrr with a hiccough along the way.

The red flags were stacking up, but his total shift at the end to Seinfeld soup Nazi style "no house for you" threw me off.

I say potentially because although 3/2 is common in the area these style of property is not.

I'll take the broken HDTV and mount it on the wall of a bedroom (replacing an old style tv). 

But if you're 10+ minute drive from downtown - you might be able to double -- but then you have to draw guests to your listing with a catered experience, and great interior styling. 

Live a frugal life style and save every penny you can.

Even when I price a unit well, I find that the people who come see it seem genuinely interested and then just slowly disappear and I never hear back after the first followup.The strategies I've started using are:-scheduling open-house style showings during a specific window of time so I don't have to make 8 separate appointments-sending reminders to each person who expressed interest before a showing (even if they weren't sure they could make it)-follow up with tenants that I really liked or who expressed the most interestI'm interested to hear from others on the forum what kind of tips and tricks you have to get tenants to seal the deal.