Good deals on the MLS are few and far between and, as you've seen, they get into bidding wars rather quickly.What most REIs tend to gloss over is the impact of the crash.

People tend to joke about me being a "Jack" of all trades.

After I visit, I always sit down with them, I fill up my renovation cost form, sometime I bring comps, and I do all my calculation in front of them so they understand the price I'm offering.The only time the seller felt insulted was an old Haitian women that sought I was racist, but that was mostly a cultural problem.

While everyone else is busy competing over the obvious deal in the most sought after area they tend to overlook the hidden gem in the hood.The "Cancer Cluster"!

Where you are looking there, near the campus, rents tend to be some of the highest in the city (except, perhaps, for lofts downtown and such) because it's almost entirely student housing.

After my first baby girl was born I needed a more flexible schedule to tend to my kid so I quit my wonderful pharm tech job and become an insurance/financial representative with COUNTY Financial.

They compare square foot prices of solds, but don't take into account your fancy granite counters or dysfunctional floor plan for that matter and zestimates tend to skew the more unique a property is.

Homes tend to settle over time, so depending on how badly they are sloped and if the settling is still active would determine what needs to be done if is does turn out to be foundation problems.

Class A areas tend to have limited turnover and higher rent to equity growth over time for appreciation.They also tend to have the least amount of cash flow.A area - more appreciation, less cash flowB area- middle appreciation, middle cash flowC area - less appreciation, more cash flow ( bigger headache )D area - close to zero appreciation or loss of current value, higher perceived cash flow with more work and a huge headache. ( owning out of state A and B area are the ones most investors stick to ).   

, I would say this: Direct mail tends to work best when you send a campaign of 5-7 different pieces, 4 weeks apart from each other.