I am confident that I can produce something better.

Produce of Canada!!

Auctions can produce great deals for investor buyers but it all depends on your area and market.

While owning free and clear offers safetly in not having a mortgage payment, you have a lot of cash tied up in the walls which only produce the cash flow return and expose you to lawsuits due to your equity position.

Multiple letters over a few months will eventually produce some results.You can also try shotgun offers on lots of properties with lowball offers.

Rich, The original news reports that I heard of seemed to indicate that the gases that were produced were sulphur-based, and that anything made of copper was readily attacked and corroded.

Stirling,You forgot to mention, but you are also an actor, director and a producer...

Say a decade ago, you had these "Gurus" who used to have some material(sometimes outdated) which was mass produced and sold to the general public through late night infomercials.

If you can, get the seller to produce some proof of revenue and you definitely want to know the maintenance history.

As RyanBod said, check out www.loopnet.com.Loopnet is actually located in San Fransisco, and can provide you with seller produced information.