Here's an interesting article from the WSJ:http://online.wsj.com/articles/how-to-play-the-real-estate-market-before-it-s-too-late-1411333001

Even if they want you to pay closing, you can play the good guy and do that, but negotiate a lower commission so that you still come out ahead.

My lawyer told me it can easily take a year to evict a tenant in NYC and possibly longer if they play the system or have kids.

Personally, I only do earnest money on listed properties, and on a VERY RARE occasion with a private seller.The title company CANNOT play the role of an investment savvy attorney, unless they are actually investment savvy attorneys. 

So, I recently sent my first yellow letters campaign to absentee owners and I'm only getting calls from investor and landlords who are not motivated to sell but the want to play the game only to see how much I offer and then say they're investors and they won't sale for that price, bla bla bla.

@Caleb Mclamb Not rich and $100k to "play the stock market" don't really go hand in hand in my opinion. 

The risk of loss is more manageable and easier to swallow, much like allowing small investor to play the same game as the really big boys.

Some groups like to get together to play the Cashflow game.

Buying and counting on a single property to appreciate is indeed dangerous but in my opinion, if you have other money makers and reason to believe you can play the appreciation game with a single property in your portfolio that isn't cash-flowing, I would posit that taking that informed investment risk with the hopes of a bigger payout is not a bad strategy.

In Ohio if someone knows how to play the game they can stay in a home for over a year without a payment to the lender.