Hi @V.G Jason - I totally agree and my family and I were just there in late July.

Due to personal faith based reason, I prefer to only invest in all cash deals that don't involve traditional financing (so typical passive RE options like syndications, RE funds with fixed returns, REITs etc are not a viable option for me).

There's nothing left to cover expenses so you better have deep pockets to cover maintenance, admin, turns, etc.If you think you can quickly improve rents to a point that covers your expenses and pads your pocket a bit, then maybe, IF it hits your return threshold.If you're buying cash, then the mortgage is not a factor. 

The idea was if you have 200k you can get one of the properties like Michael shows on his Instagram and target 20-25% cash on cash returns.

@Tim Delaney you asked what the return on equity would be and I'm not sure--I don't have that formula in any of the books I've purchased.

You should never sign a contract that requires you to return to that agent for future business.

I've even heard of GCs using auction type settings for returned items at Home Depot and Lowes for steep discounts.I've learned a lot about the GC game as I was up close to over 40 projects last two years and some went well and some did not and when they did not it was all Contractor related.If a GC isn't sourcing cheap materials at the same time milking the hell out of his 150-200 per day workers, then you can find yourself eating into your margins real fast. 

Sounds about accurate.What you should be focusing on is hopefully you are getting a return(Cash-flow) from your rentals and you are not paying tax on that.This would be better in comparison, to other investments such as dividend or interest income.

By the time the cops get there even with best efforts it might be too late.

I have a tenant who is already late on his payments but he was smoking in the property and caused a fire.