Worst case scenario as your renters pay down your current loans you should eventually fall into a more positive debt to income ratio.  

Your situation and choices will be different than theirs most likely and you'll be trading a more actively managed investment style and the work implicit to this style for a better quality of living during the accumulation phase and less flexibility during "retirement" or financial independence.  

I look forward to meeting people here on BP and starting my way towards a more positive future ;)Lynette

I do know the sellers, so of course have talked with them, but I wanted to also get a more objective and investor oriented perspective.

I would like to learn more about investing in these but would like to walk through the process once with a more experienced investor. 

Now residential tends to be a more easy and straight forward process.

This was inspired by another thread on the same subject submitted by Neal Collins  that I just commented on but I wanted to expand on it and share it with a more direct BP audience.This is indeed a subject that is of significant interest to me.

I recommend getting a 30 year loan to push down that mortgage payment to a more workable number.

Then if you run into something you don't understand ask a more pointed question.

It usually takes a few months to a year for the bank's REO agent to then list it with an agent for sale.The bank may choose to list it for more or less than what was owed to them (depending on the market and whether they made any repairs).My recommendation would be to partner with a more experienced investor, as has been mentioned, or at least use a buyers agent, as it will not cost you anything to use an agent.Good Luck!