I just mentioned the Fannie homepath site to the poster needing a starting spark because:> Fannie typically has more REOs than anyone else in a given market, so the data provides you a sufficient sampling to get you on to the top REO brokers very quickly.

We prefer to rent only for short term trips because the camper is meaningful to us and we don't want to risk it getting messed up.

How can a lender give any kind of meaningful commitment to anything without the property being in place?

But, hopefully it will spark something.

Maybe it will spark some idea and/or discussions.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-28/homeseller-reluctance-worsens-u-s-inventory-shortage.html

That analysis paralysis lit a spark in my mind.

“Job growth is strong enough to spur meaningful new household formation, and the net demand level for apartments is also helped by the limited number of households leaving the rental market to make first-time home purchases.”While apartment rents are rising at a significant pace all across the country, the nation’s average price increase is being skewed quite a bit by the surging rents in the western region of the country.

But I started listening to the BiggerPockets podcast and it kind of sparked something in me that I never knew was there, that's one of my reason changed and instead of only wanting the passive income I also started to want to make a name for myself and have something that I could pass down to my kids one day. this community of people is unlike anything I've ever seen so big shout-out to the people from BiggerPockets. the amount of information that I have gained from not only listening to the podcast but reading the forms as well gave me a ton more confidence and information that I think I would've had if I had not found this community. my goal is that in five years time I have enough investment properties to be able to stop working the current full-time job I am at now and move fully to real estate.

My goals are 1) get in the game, 2) get a conservative market return on my cash, since right now it's cash in a money market 3) small positive cash flow to make me feel good about myself, and ultimately contribute to a meaningful monthly income from rentals.If I do all this, I'll be spending about 1/3-1/2 of my available cash on this house using worst case scenario which means I can only do 1 more deal in the near future without creative financing or working a bunch more shifts.My cash on cash and ROI only go up with any rehab less than  $40,000...which to me sounds like a huge number but between roof & foundation/waterproofing we are potentially half-way there.I'm happy to share specifics if anyone wants but wondering what advice, if any, you may have?

Talk to your loan officer or mortgage broker and they can give you a meaningful answer.