I did what most of the younger investors I see these days on facebook and such which is pictures of all their cool vacations and their first high end car and their new big home etc etc.We kind of did the same thing from our 30s to our 50s but unlike probably 80% of the folks on this site we were fully engaged in RE in 07 08 and took a brutal beating in all aspects of our holdings from rentals to development to new construction it all got hammered. so we spent the last 10 years building back up.. but for me its a lifestyle if the GFC had not hit not sure where I would have ended up. 

High taxes keep homeowners stuck and gun shy to move up as that tax lingers over their head like a hammer.

I had no money, I had hammered credit still, but I had knowledge, construction experience, and most importantly, desire and ambition that never quit.At that point, my ONLY borrowing option was private/hard money that based lending decisions on the deal itself, not my credit score.  

I'm looking at 10-15 properties a day sometimes and running a spreadsheet, but usually have been using $30-40/sf just for time's sake to see if the deal looks like something worth having my mentor take a look at.Also, i'm not familiar with the 'hammer and nails' side of things.

All RE is local, just saying, that's what local is here.Another thing, there are people in my area, Realtors, attorneys, the DA and other investors that will go out of their way to lower the hammer on wheeler dealer types that screw over some home owner, at the very least their name will be mud and run out of town here.

(HINT HINT I'm not going to be sitting there monitoring who is swinging what hammer.)http://assets.mymortgageinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Self-Help-Agreement-PDF.pdf 

I have found you can disassemble just about anything with a sledgehammer and a good sawzall.

I have a hammer, tape measure, and a couple screwdrivers, but otherwise I have about as many tools as you would expect a renter to have who has never been responsible for maintenance!

So, when the audit of a short sale is done, it appears it was just sole to the LLC, no issue.Yep, you have a sneaky Realtor there, lower the hammer and get them off the streets. :)

It's very strong and to take a hammer to bash up the tile tends to also damage the plaster/drywall in the adjacent rooms.