Essentially, this means the borrower signed and acknowledged the obligations of the mortgage in the presence of a notary public and two witnesses.

You absolutely have to get a local presence by spending time in AZ yourself, or by finding someone you can trust to bird-dog for you.

My quad's come out to 64,000 a door for 850 to 950 a month in rent on my apartments.I don't look at it only from a cash flow perspective however.The area I have the buildings in is an A location prime for redevelopment down the road.Mike it sounds like your local market is competitive with investors and your margins are thin.On one hand it is good to be in a thriving market where demand is strong because usually supply is lower and the amount of rentals and new development for multifamily cannot meet demand.This helps rents grow at a rate that outpaces utility increases and inflation.The downside is it can make some investors overspend on a property because they feel good about the market.I looked for over 2 years before I bought something.I said many times those buyers were nuts.I tracked the properties and many investment properties after purchase just 1 to 2 years later went into foreclosure.They bought at such a price that it wasn't sustainable.I look for a 10 CAP or better on my purchases.The problem is if you someone who has only gotten 1 percent interest off of a CD or Treasuries or they have gotten beat up in the stock market.Those types of buyers jump up and down to get a 7% annual CAP return beating out your offers everyday of the week.By in large many buyers like this can be lazy.They only look in the MLS for listed properties.Value can be found marketing to sellers that are not on the market.They don't want to make public all of their problems ( I know it is common knowledge of default at some point but this is their mindset ).

There are lots of good deals in my area and it is a strong renter market.

The current rental market here is very strong.

No, I would not make any assumptions about the presence of utilities of any sort nor about your ability to connect to them if they are present.

Having once dated a very successful stockbroker who told me she could just as easily be selling cars, I strongly believe that the stock market is for suckers.

Reed has pretty strong opinions about the gurus:http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.htmlAnd their books:http://www.johntreed.com/bookreviews.htmlGranted, Reed has a conflict of interest in that he is a guru who sells books.

Is your credit profile strong?

Jon- there is no TREC form for a lease option(Texas).That should tell folks something.Agents have been strongly cautioned not to be a party to a lease option transaction.