Special assessments or HOA or city related ordinancesAlso, if you did the math, and based on my personal observation, land lording as a means to financial freedom is very long and tedious unless you have some other form of income to break the cap rate on the property, or have some really innovative way to acquire property (but this often in itself needs some level of capital).If you have very little capital, I would save the money (i am generally risk averse), and use sweat equity, like being a realtor or wholesaler to build the funds to invest, then combine your knowledge with things like options trading is where it all comes together and makes sense. 

@Brad ColemanWelcome.

I would not take a swing at the first thing you see or I would consider restructuring the deal as a property manager so you can gain land lording experience while the property owner can have peace of mind. 

I am leaning toward finding a low-price (but decent) local property in an acceptable neighborhood and getting some learning done without a huge financial commitment, and as a trial balloon to see if I am going to be any good at real estate / land lording and if it suits me.

Lord only knows what the borrowers were told or were offered by these people.So you're not a betting man?

(you'll usually get it but rarely on time) land lording can be quite profitable. the city is definitely block by block and have to know each area intimately as well as construction to succeed doing this, a lesson learned the hard way."

I have read the stickies on land-lording and read up on websites like ezlandlordforums.com to get proper documents.Is it important to contact a RE Attorney to go over leases and other forums before renting to tenants?

@Ian Lord Welcome to Biggerpockets!

And since I am in the business I can take the full deduction for my loss and offset my gains in other areas.Your not unique in anyway there are thousands of land lords in your exact position virtually every month they just don't post about it they just walk away.

There is a lot of information we have to learn, from money options to negotiating skills to land lording and property management skills.