It's a nice town with very high taxes and some real sketchy areas you'll probably want to stay away from unless you're buying dirt cheap (and some might say that you can never buy cheap enough in Irvington - I don't hold that opinion, btw).The taxes are sky high and the cost of doing business here (i.e. $600 for a CO for a 3 unit residential property) aint cheap.

Oh and for marketing you are right that it would not make much sense to do it the way you typically here it getting thrown about on BP.That is because it is mostly wholesalers that need to find a lot of deals and keep a constant stream of really good deals in the pipeline.If you are only looking to buy 1-2 properties in a year, or something like that, to add to your portfolio you just scale it back.You can get a list of absentee owners from MLS data, or from a title company or if you have to buy a list it should be a fairly cheap one since it is easy to get the data.

And last but not least, my wife tells me Avon is cheap stuff and wouldn't let my kids put it on their dolls, which relates back to loyalty.

SFR, multi, cheap area, etc?

Would you recommend jumping right into a cheap house (15k) that needed a lot of repairs like replacing water pipes, gas lines, floors in one room, A/C Duct, and rotting wood on the exterior?

I know people that have done it.Thats cheap money, my friend.

What works varies a good deal by area.I'd start with something cheap to get the phone ringing- bandit signs or an ad in the Thrifty Nickel/Penny Saver type publication, although ads dont pull anywhere near what they used to.

We find this to be a much better delivery system than your typical design - bid - build process that your are planning on utilizing.

Now a value add is cheap because you are paying low to begin with making the forced appreciation worth your time.The biggest mistake I see people do though is pay a premium and say I am going to do this and this and this and then the property will be great.

They're fairly cheap - $300 for a smaller heater.