Beautiful day in Puget Sound to be shopping for depressed homes.

Hi @Joseph Canini ,Have you tried going to the city permit department where your project is at and asking who do they regularly see filing for permits (more permits = more biz = more clients) Another route might be your local housing development or city housing authority, if you are in a depressed area of the city they might offer cheap loans for rehab and might have a list of GC's are approved to work with their programs

They are always junk, in depressed areas, with marginal hopes for appreciation.

The long term cycle and big recessions/depressions can happen for the very reason you mention.

Virtually the only people to lose money on San Diego buy n hold RE are people that sold when the market was depressed. 

Remember he's selling in a down market - prices are depressed.. dah!

You have to plan for it and calculate it as a cost of doing business, or, when it happens, you will get depressed.

If I lost my house because I just lost my job, I have to feed three kids and my wife cannot stop eating twinkies all day long because she is depressed, being able to stay in my home and just pay rent, is not a bad idea.Sometime I feel that we are no different then the teacher's union or the nurses union or the UAW.

I just don't understand why Americans get on the bandwagon when things are so competitive & run for the hills when things are so depressed.

But for a duplex it gets kind of depressing self-managing after 5 years and netting only a few thousand per year for your troubles.Growth/expansion is another concern.