Until reading this thread, it never occurred to me that there could be confusion about an as-is sale versus contract contingencies.

Hi George,The areas you are talking are mostly driven by appreciation and speculation that values will keep rising.That is a very low cap of 3.5%.I do work with many investors from California,New York etc. wanting to get a higher return than what they can get locally.I have owned businesses before so it is critical when buying a business that you have a proven business model in place with management so that you do not have to be there every single day.If you set up a business as an absentee owner with moderate supervision then you can count that as an investment and not a job.I don't know that you put 800,000 into your dream home.Having the money work for you instead of dead equity especially being able to lock in low interest rates today I would invest as much as I could.Get a loan for that house and put minimum down possible to preserve cash.The Ocean house is nice and I am sure it will appreciate over time but will be dead equity until you refi out or sell.Even on refi they will not let you go to 100% so any appreciation likely you will not be able to refinance because of LTV ratios in the near term.I don't know that you want to be a real estate agent in the typical sense.You would have to define residential versus commercial etc.I would put most of your money to work as I don't think your cap is going to get any lower for resale plus you can invest in markets without rent control where you reap more benefits.

Romney was able to define himself effectively (versus what the media has been saying for the last 3 months) which might have gotten him back in the game. 2.)

The difference between the online presence versus in person was stunning.

Many non-bank lenders have been heavily relying on their own comparables to determine value, versus using appraisals.

My major concern obviously is that if I don't do all the repairs that i should make pre-occupancy that the unit will not show as well and perhaps result in a lower rental rate versus the prospect of having several thousand dollars of normally deductible expenses subsequently depreciated over 27.5 years.Thank you.

For triple net you have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest and buy at a minimum.Unless you are comfortable going in and forming a partnership agreement with multiple parties to buy that way.If you are not comfortable having partners and do not have enough cash then you take triple net out.Now you are left with say apartments versus houses.It comes down to economies of scale with 30 units in one place or ten houses spread all across town.Buying houses in nicer areas will limit problems but it will also reduce your cap.If you are fine say with an 8 cap instead of a 10 for a nicer area and less headache then go for that.Sometimes people are unrealistic and want the nicest area at a 10 cap when things are trading at 7 to 8.Generally in those areas you get more appreciation on the back end.It's all a discovery process for what you will and won't accept and how much money you have to do it with.Apartments you can get in great areas 4 to 5% annual rent bumps whereas triple net maybe 1.75% to 3% a year depending on the deal.

You should be able to at least get something 10 or 15% off appraisal value - even if they are move in ready.That 10 or 15% makes a difference in buying one vs two as well.....Typically, with leverage, I'm guessing your returns are going to be much better on the 2 units versus one.

He gave me some excuse about the owners having to vote to approve this and they probably wouldnt since there's only five of us versus 200 of the owners.

If a family of five has been there that long 2000 the place will likely need a total rehab to get rent ready.If that's the case 10,000 repair will be higher for both units total if yours is not in excellent shape.California is one of those tenant friendly states so you need to look at local landlord tenant law for rights of full lease versus month to month.You can forget section 8 as that process takes forever and sometimes section 8 does not pay market rent for an area anyways.The tenant might have much more income than what is being reported as self-employed.