Rich, on the Red Sea.

As a volunteer for the Red Cross, I assisted many who would not be in any position to approach me on any business transaction, the same thing with a local Victims Shelter, A Homeless Shelter, Habitat for Humanity and the list goes on....Being in the community without wearing your professional expectations on your sleve puts you in the public eye.

If you will be doing the inspections then I would bring my ladder, infra red thermometer, socket tester, tape measure, and camera when viewing the unit and on the one you want, test the appliances and perform an inspection right then.

We had the same problems you had for 3 months - then we took over the leases, deposits, keys and did things ourselves and found that instead of being in the red each month, we were actually making a good profit.

I have a 30 years loan but I plan to retire in 15 so it should have worked perfectly, however, recent property tax increase, put me in the red, so that cash flow is gone... for a while.

I'm sure someone can find the actual #'s out there, but until someone shows how great the illegal immigrants help is, I'll side with those mean old state legislatures that are trying to keep their states out of the red.

The first red light in this deal is the fact that the bank approved 100% loan.

It sounds like you have a broken chain, the older ones are metal and rust over time or you have a leaky ball **** (the red plunger at the bottom).

Don't get me wrong, you can set the rental rate at anything you like and you can ask for first, last, security deposit, pet deposit, etc,etc, etc, but all you'll end up with is a vacant unit and a lot of red ink.

Maybe I'm way off base, but I would think you, as an investor, would agree that gov't regulation and red tape rarely makes things better, and it certainly will make all investors' jobs more difficult as well as less profitable.