I don't particularly like seeing undergarments in photos being used to advertise a unit, regardless of how sexy they may be

Competitive commercial real estate shops typically aim for 5-6% cash on cash and upper teens in IRR.Also, I assume you don't want to be an active investor, but rather find an asset manager who will identify the property for you, take care of the acquisition, and subsequently deal with the property manager, correct?

My goal is to grow a portfolio to include rental properties (for retirement income over time) and fix and sell as my husband is a contractor (we have flipped many years ago before it was sexy and made good profits back then).   

It appears it was a compound issue. i found where the teen of another tenant went to smoke in the attic.

I don't know your market but I would be happy with low to mid-teen returns for decent properties in my market.

30 years from now people will probably say, "I don't know what those guys in the 'teens were thinking.  

Maybe at Norwalk and Santa Ana, but where we buy isn't "sexy" enough to get the attention from the TV show crowds.

This is the new sexy thing that everyone keeps talking about... but is anyone actually doing it?

There's hard money for as little as 3.5% up to the low teens and beyond.

"Buying under market" was pretty much coined by gurus, easy to understand, sounds sexy, and then they add "and made $25,000 that day!"