After a month, and another $400.00 in holding costs, I became more inclined to spend the $800.00 in staging fees, and after realizing several other people did over the winter rehabs in the same location, thereby putting a glut of inventory on the market, and preventing anyone from getting a higher price on their finely rehabbed house, it was decided to list it at the original price of $90k.

@Jscott--The commission is not my first priority, particularly if the listing agent will be more inclined to deliver my offer to the seller on a silver platter.

-Ability to learn new things- not afraid to get their hands dirty-Someone who is mechanically inclined and can learn and understand new things-Ability to use the Internet to research solutions and knowledge-Motivated and responsible.

While I haven't gotten to the point of sitting down and writing down my goals and plan (it will probably happen this weekend while my wife/daughter are out of town), my first inclination is SFH buy and hold properties that I can build low and slow growth...and evolve from there.

However, my initial inclination is to keep it small with quality and not large with quantity.  

I can normally review laws for different states and figure out the answer, but I haven't the time or inclination to deal with this one.I can find a lot of websites, handbooks, and other resources for Seattle, but you claim to be outside of their jurisdiction so I don't know if you follow the general laws of the State or if you fall under something else.

A few things I've seen:no rentals under 1 yearowner is responsible for any "disturbances" so if the tenants are loud, etc.. the condo assoc could fine youIn general I'd be more inclined to look for young professionals than college kids as mentioned though if its the only possibility get a lot of $$ up front and make the parents co-sign.

While I am generally inclined to hunt for an 8-10% "base hit" cash-on-cash return, I have a question as it relates to financing.

@Joey Mitchell I'd also be considering how easy (or difficult) this property is to manage.For instance, if high-quality tenants are easy to find, and the property presents minimal headaches, I'd be more inclined to keep it...and the opposite if it's a pain to manage.You said you had an eviction--do you think that was a fluke, or something you can prevent, or is it likely to be a re-occurring problem?

As a local investor in Tampa I'm inclined to tell you to avoid it all costs to avoid competition however I've never been more sure of the Tampa market since I've been here.