Now I'm not advocating that you go out willy-nilly buying every piece of real estate in the hopes that you'll have a winner in there but my point is that you have to do the best you can, do the deals that you think have a low probability of being a loser and gain experience that will give you the skills and the access to the home runs and grand slams.If you read the books and follow the blogs and even some forum posts you might think that everybody hits home runs on their first try. 

Note: I'm rather conservative in my decisions, so personally I'm more comfortable taking a smaller piece and not having to worry about stretching my credit too thin.

I would recommened PMing me the addresses and the listing agents name so I can give them a piece of my mind.Just kidding...................You've got several properties with Section 8 tenants n them and all are over the 1 percent rule?

@Luz Pagan also, if you're lucky enough to have several comps to choose from, you can often see a pretty distinct value to rehabbed vs not.

That would actually make it easier for another FHA buyer as that piece is done.

William - Thanks that gives me a some piece of mind. 

I like the Wack a Mole analogy.. if I think back on my career in this game that started in 75.there were all distinct and different events that perpetuated a slow down or price compression in real estate75.... coming out of VN war  soft economy83 - 85  sky high mortgage and interest rates  ( SL crisis  but a lot of money was made picking up those deals)89 to 92  in bay area  Earth quake and war.. prices in SF and bay area compressed 20 to 50%  ( we have short memories.) but that was also pre high tech.2000  dot com bomb  short lived 2001  Bin laden short lived07 to 2011  global credit crisis worse i have ever seen or I think any one basically living ever saw.. worse than great depression in many areas...

Getting off market deals is hard work and tricky with many moving parts but with focus and putting the right pieces together you can make it happen.

Now he sits by the front window most days watching, and where else would I find someone watching the place 24 hours, and tell me how a piece of garbage got on the sidewalk, and I'm informed in 15 minutes.

The tenant just signed a new 1 year lease but has also complained that the driveway needs relaying and that the deck is falling to pieces so guess this is a ploy to start negotiations on selling price.I understand that they pay the rent for a given time, plus extra that we hold as a deposit/down payment so assume I can get that contract drawn up by a real estate attorney who can also work on closing once the agreed upon timeframe ends (is this better than a realtor or should I just go with one and pay the 5%?