You won't get high cash flow like the midwest and you wont get super high appreciation like what the bay area just had, but I think an investor can receive a bit of both with a stable economy.

A good property manager should have experience with all this and can make sure its done properly.Also include extra money on repairs because if youre saying this tenant will go out with a fight, they will probably destroy the house before they vacate

But save up enough so that you can cover vacant months, repairs, etc then your wife wont stress as much either.

The property tax is not much and I imagine liability insurance wont be as well so its not a huge problem to hold it for a while if needed.The biggest cost would most likely be demolishing the rundown building (can be done by hand) and cleaning out the jungle that has developed on the property.Its certainly one of those where its worth to put out a feeler and make an offer and see what happens, especially since I feel the neighborhood is on the "come-up".

simple...they wont know for sure until everything comes down. then they will inspect the wood and see if it's good or bad. the bad wood gets replaced. if most of it needs to be replaced, you should just do the whole thing.make sure you know how much they charge per sheet of plywood if it needs replacement.really that simple.

I'm trying to stay fairly conservative because when my student loans come out of deferment I wont have much extra beyond the rent for the unit I owner occupy.

you've come to the right place, make yourself at home :) Go to "learn" tab and you will probably wont be able to get out of that for a bit!

Something like "you realize that if we dont come to terms here, you credit will be destroyed and you wont be able to buy another house for like a decade, that and car and credit cars will get a LOT more expensive for you. 

. - If he wont/cant give you any references, run!

. =) I dont pay PMI so I dont know the rules for it.On the escrow, you will get your money back, but you wont be able to use it to fund your new escrow account when refinancing.