@Xing - I saw a few investment mountain properties near Bass Lake , here in Ca. that are rented every weekend / week during the summer , but is inaccessible during winter so it can only provide income for about 4 months out of the year - As an investment it would be nice to find something near a lake and ski lift so it could be rented out all year.My wife and I have thought about that in the past - buy a vacation property that doubles as an income generator - but we usually focused on looking at beach properties in so cal since it's such nice weather all year long in so cal :) - I have literally played in the water in shorts on Christmas day at Newport Beach.thanks for the input - I think I'm going to do some research and write a blog about my findings

I always inspect my own properties in addition to hiring inspectors (look for frass, stains, soft spots, dipping roof, go into the attic, rodent feces, foundation cracks, soft wood around windows and window sills, water stains in the basement by the furnace (often a sign that the chimney is leaking into the furnace - a huge problem)etc.).

I was instructed to open an account with youcheckcredit.com and then provide them with my username and password so they can do "soft pulls" during the approval process.

I'm way more comfortable with that approach, anyways.I think the pitch method (albeit a soft pitch) should be reserved for reaching out initially to people I don't know, like from mailing lists.You guys seem to know more about this than I, so I'm definitely going to listen; you never get a second chance to make a first impression, they say.

There are still too many here that believe the myth of a soft landing.

Invester swoops in, lender does a soft decline on the short sale imputs the lender with the approved value and whamo investor wins.

I have a soft copy I can send to you if you send me your email address.

When I used to develop business cases around enterprise software purchases we would call items like "peace of mind" a soft dollar benefit...it doesn't show up in the hard dollar calculations, but it is worth something nonetheless.

The Fed is going to do their best job to bring us in for a soft landing but inflation is inevitable.

A logical argument is that we needed to print and borrow this money for a "soft landing" and to "prevent the next great depression", recapitalizing banks, etc; i.e a necessary evil.