So do your homework and talk with other investor about their properties in those area (visit the streets/address that they hold properties on) Glenn

I admire your courage, Troy... i'm finding myself a bit paralyzed by the need to "do my homework" and get a full team put together before doing my first deal.  

Thats really simple math I know, but even at 50% vacancy I am likely at 6-7 prperties at year 5, just because I bought 5 out of my own pocket, and the others produced atleast 1.

In other words, waiving the inspection can make your offer much more attractive, but do your homework first :)

It can be passive income, if you get a property manager.There is a lot of math involved to figure out what price you need to buy at, how much loan you should get, what will be your cash on cash returns, your overall returns, etc.

If that doesn't scare you, here's a little run down:Most "rental parks" trade for 10+ CAP rates, and the quick math on any apartment or rental park (assuming no major improvements need to be made) is a 50% expense load relative to gross income.

Your goals should have a timeline, so once that is identified, it becomes a simple math problem to determine how much you should be saving every month/year. 

These are two specific issues that I ran into, but generally speaking, FHA loans are maybe a bit more strict/nuanced than some other loan products, so you'll want to do your homework on the property ahead of time to ensure it will meet FHA requirements - or at least have the ability to be remedied to meet the FHA's requirements prior to closing.2) STR vs.

The monthly rent is way below 2% of the value, and the expenses are way over 50% of the rent, and yet my math is telling me I make over 5x more money renting it than selling it + investing the proceeds.  

I have also heard that this bank is actually getting guaranteed loans through Suntrust.The other question, based on my bad math, would it be financially viable to do it.Current loan = 15 yr @ 5.75% @ 135k (12 months x 15 yr = 180 months x 1100 = 198,000 total paid to the bank. (63000 in interest)new loan = 30 yr @ 3.875% @ 103k ( 12 mo x 30 yrs = 360 months x 710 = 255,600 total paid to the bank) (152600 interest) THIS seems wrong somehow...So is that additional interest to the bank really worth refinancing to save 390 a month over the long term?