RARELY.Fact 2:If you need to send 3000+ mailers to people on this lists to get one deal, it means 2999 people of the 3000 you spend money on to chase, are not interested, not motivated, and thus the wrong audience.That is a 99.97% failure rate. 

I will defer I have not chased court house steps personally in years ..

For many of you who are chasing what Stuart is saying, you are probably better suited to be an LP in a professionals syndication (being careful to vet them of course), than to set out to become the GP.

My California tenant has initiated his monthly rent payment ($2100) to pull from his Chase account on March 14 through my Avail PM system, but I will not be receiving it until March 19. 

Quote from @Michell Chase: I am currently working on building my RE portfolio. 

Remember, no system is perfect, so avoid the temptation of constantly chasing after the next shiny object.

They may seem attractive on a spreadsheet if you are chasing cash flow, but the fundamentals are not as strong and these properties are  disproportionately impacted by capex and operating costs.

The main players in this space are Guidance Residential and UIF, but it turns out that they may just be purchasing a Freddie/Fannie loan on the back end to finance the deal and then structure it differently for the buyer - which isn't in accordance with their religious rules. 

@Jay Hinrichsundefined some markets are just too hot and have too big of players chasing what little land there is and if your going to get anything you have to close..

Another advice I have been given is "just be a good landlord" but that doesn't protect me against crazy tenants and ambulance chasing lawyers who would be happy to destroy my life.