If the pieces come together, I contact the administrator to see if the estate wants to sell the house.The process is more time-consuming than blanket marketing, but it produces more targeted leads.

Professional fees that relate to producing or collecting taxable income or receiving tax advice are deductible. 

I'm posting as a fellow investor.They should produce a quick and dirty prospectus with most details, maybe not rent rolls, but enough to justify their price. if its even in a ballpark, make an offer with EM down.

Then use a web based application taking service like rentmarketplace dot com to take applications and do credit check.Read in the landlording forums on how to screen, write your ad (besure to put your written requirements at the bottom of your ad so applicants know before they call).In time you may decide to turn over management to a property manager, or an agent.  

Rome wasn't built in a day, it takes a season to produce a crop ... insert cliche here.

Jason Kidwell I must be missing something, why did you purchase a property for $650k cash that only produces 2k a month in rent?

For the local DC people if you can send me any of your best contacts for local private and hard money lenders, GC and Sub contractors, and any flippers who might be producing turn key or decent investments in the area I would appreciate the extra connections!

Rental income is directly impacted by the amount of equity due to the opportunity value of cash.A 1M property purchased with all cash does not produce positive cash flow with rent at 2K simply because there is no mortgage.

These smaller targets include daily goals of 20 minutes of reading(love the BP books) or podcast listening, and analyzing 5 deals a day(thanks goodness the web tools work on mobile devices). 

Hi all,My name is Ray Southern and I'm looking to break into the world of REI.I've been a web engineer in Chicago for going on 15 years now, almost completely self-taught.It's been a great career, but I need to start looking ahead to retirement.I have no experience in real estate, except a condo I bought in 2008 as my primary residence, right before the market tanked.I'm still in the condo, did some refinancing, and plan on keeping it for good (great neighborhood), maybe renting it out if I start a family and need to move.My overall plan?