Mack, the hard part of investing out of state is to find a competent reputable team, that would include,lawyers, real estate professionals, construction people, and handymen. the other difficult element is to know and understand the communities.

We were "lucky" because we were 15/15 with respect to profits and didn't have any major bad stories but we followed a conservative route and basically were copycats of the bigger players that we got to know through observation.

Google them and you will see a number of other players, as a result.For your situation, you could borrow some of their ideas on how and who to market your props.

While it's a great target, if you base your maximum offer on that profit target, you're very likely to get outbid by investors who are willing to settle for a lower profit target.Personally, I think $15-20K is reasonable, and I'm guessing other seasoned investors that you're competing against probably have similar goals.

From Allen's perspective if he can get in there now, he doesnt have to compete with someone else in an auction setting.

I do however market our properties on Craigslist and dont want to compete there with people I dont know.

I would assume you are going to have to compete with the REO's and price your offer accordingly - then if the flip sides happens you'll be pleasantly suprised and rewarded.Set yourself up for the worst case and then everything else is a bonus.TTFN,Greg

It only takes a few close hits on roof to competely total it out.

We have a property right on the beach and we compete with summer rentals and we don't want to deal with that.

Even the major players get trapped once in a while!