Ideally you want the prospect's first impression to classify you as "decent, normal folk".

Remember, the title "realtor" doesn't necessarily make him any smarter than you or I regarding investment real estate...

It would be ideal for a person planning to live in 1 place for 7 years.

Ideally I'd like him to carry 25-30% at 4.5%. does he laugh in my face?

Better yet, just don't e-mail her back. 6 minutes from now, she won't even remember that she e-mailed you anything!!!

Just remember to interview a lot of folks and "fire" the bad eggs as soon as they don't perform for you.

Add on taxes, insurance (this is hurricane territory, remember, and certainly in a flood zone, too), maintenance (they may have built roads and houses but this is ultimately a swamp), and property management (typically 10%, plus more everytime you have a vacancy), and you're certainly looking at close to two grand a month.

She didn't remember or know of this home, she is going to look into things for me and call me back.I would prefer to deal with the bank directly and offer them the cash.What is the reason for using a realtor?

I don't remember what I paid for the rehab bootcamp but I've been back to it three times for free..... so that has lowered my cost basis a bit.

Expenses should always be calculated at 50%, remember maybe this year they will be lower but at a point you'll need to change major items like roof furnace a/c etc etc etc If you buy a house for 100k it needs to pay 2k in rents every month, simple as that.Let's say you have 100k in cash, you use 60k to buy a house that is really worth 100k and it rents for 1200$ (2% of 60k) and cashflows 150$ a month, your net worth has just jumped to 140k, your monthly income has just increased by 1800$/year.