Let's say a mine in South Africa pulls some gold out of the ground. 

You can't just look at a single variable (like cash flow) and say a deal is good or bad.

In my experience, people say a lot of things, but don't actually follow through and never hear from them again.

Thanks Christine, when you say a 4% tax what kind of a tax are you referring to?

I would say as far as any other specifics, I want to get multifamily units 6 units and above and start doing single family homes for flipping but I have never dealt with the oil heating units that they have out there and that scares me because I do not want find out how much that cost to fix them and have that put me in a bad situation.

You can say "a family member died and my mom wants to know if they owned property, what document would I find that on?"

From my understanding as a licensed RE agent it's slightly harder to be an investor (or shall I say a "creative" investor) as all your transactions are scrutinized by the board of realtors.

I lost one bid because of bad advice from a realtor or I should say a miss communication, then I was yelled at and belittled by the same realtor.

Market rents are not so volatile that all of a sudden say a home that rents for $1,000 per month 2yrs from now is a $1,300 per month home. 

I know there is no hard and fast rule but when you put up cash offers, what would you say as a rule of thumb you can offer below the asking price?