What's important is to look at what markets are growing and developing at a faster rate, where is the higher return on investment, and what trends are not diminishing but accelerating at an exponentially faster pace more so than any other market?

Many people, especially aging Baby Boomers, no longer want to be saddled down by the responsibilities of owning a home and are finding an appreciation for the latitude offered by renting.This trend towards renting shows no signs of slowing down.

It was completely surprising because I was in good shape.  

The property is bad shape and would be a good rehab candidate were it not for the property being over 2k miles away from me.

And now that Globiflow is now available with the cheapest Podio monthly paid plan Podio now can become a much better CRM at a low cost.Still if you want to be up and running with a CRM today, don't want to pay anything and don't mind not following the REI Podio trend I'd recommend Insightly because it's so damn easy.

So I sent in my contractor to inspect and see what's going on.When he came back and reported the property was in good shape and total estimated repairs would be under 10k,I wondered what could account for the low list price....and why the property was still on the market after 45 days in a hot market with all these eagle-eyed investors focused on the Jacksonville area...Then I went to look at it myself.Property was right under the I-10W but most of the traffic noise blew right on top of the building and you could hardly hear the traffic.Here was the kicker for me:There was already a long term tenant in place paying $800/mo with no rent increase in the past 5 years....and he didn't want to move.Long story short,I offered 50k,sellers countered at 55k.Deal done last week.I sent a speculative notice to tenant raising rent to $975/mo 2 days ago and received a signed lease back within 24 hours!

Sure it's more than laminate, but one hot pan/pot on the laminate and you might be replacing it quick.I can't see the photos on my phone, but if you upgrade anything that will take abuse, and the HVAC, windows and roof are in good shape, you might be able to renovate in that $15k budget.

I would suggest of course educating yourself not only on market trends, but if possible find a local investment group.

Not sure how this applies in this case but the property is in poor shape.

Account Closed, thanks for the tip on the Escrow/title. the property is not a meth house but it is in bad shape and it is not very big.