As the legal owner and landlord the property must remain habitable.

You need to look at properties and find the motivated ones.

I don't see where the profit motivation is?

Apparently the bank (which shall remain nameless at the moment) neglected to check on past due property taxes on the property and it is now listed for Upset Tax Sale this coming Monday.

I know Texas has remained a fairly strong market while the country as a whole has been lagging, so it may be difficult to find discounted properties in your area (especially Austin).

Of course in different markets and at different times your strategies may change...but the fundamentals always remain the same.

Most often, that is the only way to buy these (close in your personal name, mortgage in your personal name, deed it over to your llc after-but mortgage always remains in your name).

He would tell me sales prices of houses selling for 500k-1M on Grandview Ave in Pittsburgh he had the chance to buy for 50k 30 some years ago.When i was about 18 i started looking for my first project(rehab) hoping if i found the right deal i could sell it to a family member there were 4 amazing houses i came across but could not sell the idea to anyone there was even one house an old lady gene a friend of mine was going to sell me for $2500 that was rentable as is i could not come up with the money and she was scammed buy the RE investor i learned so much from he saw a good deal and took it. the house hunt never stopped i started showing more houses to my mom and she became more interested. 2005 was a terrible year along with a slow work year construction wise i lost my best friend, grandmother and father then my house ,car everything but my dog due to funeral expense's i realized life was to short and i would not wait to get into this business anymore i moved back in with my mom and became even more motivated to get a rehab going i showed my mom a property in summer 2006 and she became interested and helped me get the house it was almost condemned we bought it for 6k and brought it back from the dead if you visit my myspace page its the yellow house on the slide show Ive since done 2 more and I'm ready for many more I've decided this wont be a hobby i sleep RE literally. ill live in the streets if that means i can keep building this dream.

At best, prices will remain flat for years to come while the long term trend catches up to the current prices.

Helping people who are facing the 3 Ds when you are hunting for motivated sellers.You also might be able to build success and then have a better story about how you went from diasbility to self-employed.Go for it.John Corey