Only you can tell if this is a good deal, and if you don't know, I would suggest you pull back and better define your retirement goals, which will influence your investing goals, which will determine your buying criteria.

Read those minutes and see if they are proposing any plans that will influence the owners financially, like a special assessment, changing rental requirements, etc etc. 

If you are new, your sphere of influence (friends, family, previous coworkers, etc.) is the best way to get started.

I think that is a factor that could influence which route to go.

The bank appraised this at 500K, seller was asking for the same price, which makes me believe that the appraiser was possibly influenced by the sellers price since there was no real comps to go by in the last handful of years.

As you know, markets are local, so we need to have fiscal restraint at the state and local level to avoid a debt implosion.Secondly, when you give a developer money, he develops.

I'm hopeful there has to be a way to find a lead even in a hot market, but I'm starting to wonder if I just have to wait for things to cool down... my hesitation with waiting is two-fold: 1) All the market trends and government fiscal policy indicate interest rates will only climb in the near future.

@Eric GrossI started by working with my SOI Sphere of Influence, I collected everyone who I knew well enough (meaning they would talk to me) phone numbers and addresses if I did not have them (I ended up with around 200 people).

Read Richest Man in Babylon and Rich Dad Poor Dad in the past years, both had a big influence at me.

I think he may have gotten out one month too early in this market.I know all markets have different influencers so making blanket statements is no good.