Regardless, don't sweat the bed bugs.

I am going to hold the building for about 2-3 months to do some sweat-equity restoration prior to renting.

I ran this game 4-5x with a few evictions taking 60 days to get my houses back and quit free-market rent entirely.Sect 8 has it's down side...you will wait 60 days before you get your first deposit...and when the first falls on a weekend you won't get paid till Monday at noon or midnight (when you have bills coming due and more than $10k that is supposed to clear SOMETIME, you will start to sweat!).

You could bring the sweat equity and would still be getting the experience, and they would be getting another property without a lot of extra work on their part.

I also receive 3-5 the return which allows me to build my cash reserves faster allowing to absorb any sort of vacancy.To your point about the current market I do think there are a lot of people buying clear blue sky and hoping appreciation is going to bail them out.Thanks Luke,My answer will be short, sharp and sweat lol"Yes" to leverage but only when you know what you are doing.I've done hundreds of deals, work 14hr days just on my real estate business and still loose money on the odd deal.Now compare that to someone doing real estate as a par time investor and using a tonne of leverage from day 1 (It's a recipe for disaster)Nothing comes easy and success in real estate takes hard work.It also takes time to learn the industry so play it as safe as you can when you just start out.Much successps.

I earned my MBA through blood, sweat and tears right before the Lehman shock and my take is that it all depends on the recruiting upon exit.

While we all enjoy the benefits of driving on the same public roads to get to where we're going, the wage earners are paying in blood, sweat, tears, and treasure for it while the government hands me money back for my own efforts.This particular event happens almost every day, and no bones about it, it can certainly be destabilizing when you understand just how clearly the powers-that-be in our society think of those making money through investments as extra-special people, and those making money through selling their time for money as dogcrap under their shoes.

Matt,Don't sweat a lot of people running your credit.

Personally I would look for a private seller of a fixer upper without the laundry list and using "sweat equity" on your own timeline to make the numbers work better!

Again, partner with someone who might want to offer their sweat equity into the deal.