I'll more than likely be staying away from those areas for now, so your hands on experience and observations are very helpful, so thank you again!

Note, this is not directly targeted to the experienced professional wholesalers that actually do it correctly but merely an observation as to why such a bad rap to the majority that do it wrong...So this in turn has created the bad rap and thus has caused some states to enact laws to prevent  those folks brokering without license which is what it's viewed as at the end of the day..

An observation: $330 rent is very low per unit rent, and it looks like utilities are included in the rent.

I was so nervous, but I put on my best poker face and just observed how others handled themselves when bidding. 

They are only required to disclose material facts that are obviously wrong by visual observation and if it's rented out the broker may not have set foot inside.

I quickly explained I was just observing to learn.

Problem is, the home ownership rate (at least where I live) is at an all-time high, and even with the subprime woes I don't think this will significantly impact that.My observation (I am not yet a landlord BTW, but I do a lot of research:) is that vacancy rates seem to be improving, but rents haven't really moved (yet?).

Carl,I'll add one more observation, assuming you are interested in passive investing, crowd funding is one way to do it but don't overlook syndication and direct relationship you can get w/a deal sponsor and the learning that can provide you to be a better investor going forward.  

Sometimes you just have to do things to make tenants happier. keep in mind that the leaving tenant is not expecting to be rewarded for reporting issues, they expect to be charged for them so it is on you to be observant.

Anyway, just my observations.