I plan on doing most of my own rehabbing as I Do tile and remodel bathrooms and kitchens on the daily and have my own crew.

I want to focus on buying a foreclosure (REO) property so I get a good discount on my first home and also learn a thing or two while fixing it up.

If the other buildings on my block are all PM managed at let's say, $800/mo...and they're charging 10%, why not discount my rent a little and have my pick of tenants, plus, they know what the other bldgs are charging, what few vacancies I have are often filled by neighboring bldgs...

I used Listsource to create a list of 212 Absentee Owners with equity.I went driving for dollars for about a month and compiled an extra 20 contacts to mail.Then I used Google to compile a good letter I wanted to use as a mailerI used plain white printing paper with a red font (looks like handwriting)Bought stamps and labels at a discount from Ebay (and used Ebates.com for an extra 1% cash back)I also used a local company to print 200 one color one sided bandit signs for $185.03 total (free pickup, no shipping costs)And got H-stakes from Home Depot for roughly $0.30 each1st dealI got a call from someone way out in Lakeland, FL.

The one area that I guess I find some value in it is if you are in fact setting a discount rate to get an idea of how much more or less you can pay on a deal to achieve those results.

Some laminates will separate or bubble up at the seams over time especially in bathrooms and kitchens or high traffic areas like hallways.

If it had 1 Bathroom that may be good long term b/c less to go wrong or replace/remodel.

The interest rate is not very high so they will probably have to take a discount but they may be able to raise the cash they want and you would avoid the refinancing costs.

My family owns a 15 story, 54 unit apartment building in Chicago, and our current cleaning "crew" consists of a woman who lives in the building with significantly discounted rent as a trade for cleaning public areas + taking the trash out to the alley from each floor every other day.

This model only works for more distressed properties where you can buy at a deeper discount and add more value.