It may be worthwhile to have a relationship with neighbors that enjoy monitoring the neighborhood and reporting problems, as long as it doesn't get out of control.

I never understood why putting 25k to sleep to get the limited cashflow you are getting is worthwhile, so much work to get to that point, and section 8/any tenant is a constant headache.

Hello RichardYou are on the right track hanging out here on BPYou will not find a better real estate investment forum then here01- Check out Amazon .com   Books section,,you can buy any real estate book under the sun used ,in print out of print for pennies on the dollar.If you dont have them yet ,get the 3 excellent books by John Schaub.02 When you can afford it get a smart phone,,it doesnt have to be an I Phone,,,,HTC makes a very nice Android style phone for the money.Make friends with a young techie geek and get a handle on the best phone company deal around,,,I word suggest T Moblie first.Gei an internet hook up on your smart then you can listen to the BP Podcasts via You Tube wherever you go ,,,even waiting for a haircut at the barbershop.Lastly find the best REI meeting in your area,,,,hint,,,it wont be the one where some snakeoil guy is selling courses for $1997.00 on a card table at the end of the meeting.Good REI's usually have folks that have a professional capacity in the real estate industry and anj area of expertise they talk about,,,,ie brokers appraisars,,,,,title reps etc.Believe or not I have found theres usually only one or 2 in any major metropolis that are worth while,,,,so it might take you some time to find oneHope this helps DD in L.A.

Agreed with Andrew that this isn't meant to sound obnoxious, but...I get contacted by wholesalers every day of the week, and nearly 100% of them never deliver anything worthwhile.

Unfortunately in our market there's very few properties that have the profit potential to make them worthwhile.

Here are some links that don't exactly address the question at hand but I believe are worthwhile for the self-directed investor.http://www.nasaa.org/33698/informed-investor-advis...https://rita.memberclicks.net/assets/documents/Bes...https://rita.memberclicks.net/assets/documents/che...

Some (obvisously fewer) are more like wholesalers, where they rehab and take out just enough to make it worthwhile, but leave the price enough below market to give the buyer a little equity going into the deal.  

So you're saying it's pointless to run numbers to try and determine a possible worthwhile rental property based on a price you may potentially pay for it?

I'm really just stream-of-consciousing right now, I'm in agreement that there isn't much on the market that is a worthwhile investment in the Seattle/Bellevue.Looking forward to the meet up tomorrow!

Definitely worthwhile.