Ive been soft on them because this happens to be my gfs house and ive basically hidden the issue from her so she doesnt flip a gasket, (i told her to move out it would be cool and id handle her house).  

There are a couple of gems hidden in all that uncertainty.

This is much like our online foreclosure auctions, you don't know if you're bidding against another bidder, or the bank, as their reserve is hidden.  

For starters, you're able to depreciate the property you purchase over 27.5 years (I didn't even know about this gem), meaning that you can actually write off several thousand (obviously that number will vary depending upon which part of the country you're in. 

They're not exactly hidden gems, right now I'm just looking on the MLS and driving for dollars fairly close to my current location.

The hidden costs people don't consider are the leads you're *losing* (that you don't even know you're losing) because of lack of performance on a website system not built and honed to perform in this market... and the extra time you're spending building the site and trying to figure out the right strategy to move forward w/ to get the result you want for your business. 1 deal lost could be $5k+ minimum... that would pay for LP or Carrot for 5-10 years. 

Since we have enough capital to buy a 4 to 8-unit plex, we will now concentrate on finding that gem.

Even if I'm showing small personal things to someone on craigslist, I've always got my Ruger LCP hidden inside my waistband.  

What a gem!

How can we find the gems?