Hi, my name is Rhonda and I am currently learning as much as I can about Real Estate Investing by using the many resources available on BP, as well as, reading quality real estate books recommended on this site.I want to understand as fully as possible the risks and rewards involved when purchasing rental properties.My husband and I have discussed obtaining buy-and-hold properties several times in the past.However, due to lack of knowledge and a fear of financial ruin, we never moved forward with the idea.I am originally from Oklahoma but have been living in Northern Colorado for almost 13 years (Longmont for 11 & Berthoud for 1 1/2).

The back story (so I was told) is the seller got cancer and just needs to dump the property, but I think the real story is he purchased it at auction, doesn't want to finish the work from the previous owner (who I found out is in prison) .

about 220sq ft of living room floor maybe sub floor is ruined...the halway and about half of two bedrooms ...probably about 500sq ft total sub floor and floor will need to be replaced ....Is this out of the ordinary ...or have any of you had to deal with this type of problem.....any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated..thanks the tax value on this house is $91,000+ and they want 40k but are negotiable....so i think i could get it for around 32k -36k...mkt value i estimated to be around 92k -97k does this sound like a decent deal even with the busted pipe issue[/img]

If you do not have property management experience then you need to make sure you have proper licensing and go work for a large firm where you can learn how it all works.Building a customer base with no experience will be tough and you could ruin your rep experimenting on people's properties.Decide if you want to manage houses, multifamily, commercial, etc. first.Commercial will give you normal business hours and most weekends off.

Both of these types are ruining it for everyone because once someone has dealt with one of those "wholesalers", they just never want to do business with a wholesaler again.So, in my opinion, it's not a good thing to try to do as your full-time business and I would not recommend even trying to do it except, as mentioned above, as an exit strategy when all else fails.

If the house burns to the ground, they also cannot force you to buy the burned ruins at the same price.

@James WiseOh shoot man, way to ruin the party...I was thinking the same thing as I read through this as i am faced with a similar net worth looking to attain FI in the next year or so.  

Getting rid of low rent tenants is like getting rid of cancer.

It looks like the owner, who was a carpenter, developed cancer and maybe then got sicker, ran out of money and then died, leaving it like this.I am trying to estimate rehab costs, but fixing a warped floor, I don't know how much that would cost. 

If it weren't for my other financial backings, these two section 8 properties (both of which cost 55k a piece), would of ruined me financially.