There are huge variations between houses in these kinds of areas.I average about $17,000 per unit to get it rent ready and $500 per month in gross rents.

;by purchasing an investment property (trial by fire ... err, doing);if they cannot purchase a property at the moment, they should get a job, learn to budget and get their under control so they can save money to invest;by developing a skill - i.e. learning how to find and identify a deal - they can provide to an experienced investor in turn for being able to learn (be mentored); ....This list can get quite long if you stop to ponder for a bit.

Some of my most profitable deals long term have been 0.75% deals and some of my least profitable ones have been 2% deals, and much variation in between ... so, to me at best it is a meaningless metric, at worst it is the opposite in that it has in my experience been slightly inverse to the profitability.

Of course there can be many variations, but that's the division I make, and read often on the boards here.

Well sometimes it takes some trial and error, and I think every investor needs to understand that has to happen sometimes (rather than expecting perfection all the time).

We negotiate the transaction on the phone - make  a "trial offer" below what ever they are asking (to test their motivation) - we first get all the information we can; mortgage balance, current or in arrears, what are they selling for in the area, what kind of work does it need, who is on the deed, listed or not - how long - why didn't it sell, vacant or occupied. 

But the variation is we live in the primary residence for more than 2 years, to save on taxes. 2010 - bought #1 primary residence2013 - bought #2 primary residence2013 - 2016 - rented #1 house2016 - Sold #1 home - profits are tax free if you have lived in the house for at least 3 years of the previous 5 years2017 - Will be buying a #3 primary residence2017 - rent or sell #2 So far it has been working just fine.

Also, I will have to test out the free trial on Follow Up Boss to get an idea how the lead database works. $79 a month seems a little pricey though.

While there are many variations in markets, my experience has been that removing a bedroom drops the value of a property.

The variation is deals will out weigh the variations in those markets unless you plan on buying a huge number of properties.