Establish a residence, register to vote, obtain a driver's license (and make sure to surrender your CA driver's license), etc.  

She's in the driver's seat in this market.Now, if I were you, the strategy I'd take, is telling her that you've realized that it would be less expensive to buy than rent, and before you start looking at other properties, you wanted to ask her if she'd be willing to sell to you.What that says is that 1) she may lose her long-term tenant, and 2) that if she sells to you instead of losing you as a renter, she won't have to do any upgrades. 

That could not be farther from the truth and it normally leads to financial disaster.It's like buying a car without bothering to get a drivers licence and expectation to have a chauffeur.

Create a sign in sheet so those who show up can leave their contact information with you; you can create a box beside it for them to check off if they take an application to fill out and return later or if they already filled it out on line, have them bring it with a copy of their driver's license and proof of income (two months).

If it’s a national bank forget it but if smaller and local...Research the property and the rehab costsPrepare a presentation to the bank about your skills experience and financeReach out to whoever is in charge of distressed assets and request a meetingIt’s possible they have internal metrics for veteran, community building and other loans that may give them an incentive to work with youPut together numbers that work for you—banks aren’t stupid and have their own drivers and it may get to the point where they perceive it to their advantage to get a loan off the books and back performing.

The question is how long will the recession last, and what economic drivers will take the biggest hit.

Look into Cleveland, its got good cashflow potential with appreciation happening as well.Looking for appreciation come to Columbus, there are still 1% deals, but the more attractive part is the population growth and other economic drivers!

Schools and a community's identity are the big drivers here. 

Look into Cleveland, its got good cashflow potential with appreciation happening as well.Looking for appreciation come to Columbus, there are still 1% deals, but the more attractive part is the population growth and other economic drivers!

Look into Cleveland, it's got good cashflow potential with appreciation happening as well.Looking for appreciation comes to Columbus, there are still 1% deals, but the more attractive part is the population growth and other economic drivers!