A potential tenant applied to stay in my boarding house.

I am considering turn-key providers but many of them aren't reputable enough for me to feel comfortable investing with them.

Hey Patrick,The first thing I would say is that in order to be purchasing 5 rental properties per year, you will need to have an excellent team on the ground ready to follow through with the properties or working with a trusted turn-key property provider.I would maximize your loan opportunity by taking out the highest LTV loan you can get.

The key to the whole economic cycle is in leverage...

And don't buy at market rate (i.e. buy at a discount) so that your leverage isn't 100% of market value, but only purchase price, if that makes sense.The main key to leveraging properties is exactly what Pete is saying.

I agree, organization is key to doing it right.

Class B/C value add occupancy held steady while Class A fell off a cliff.3) In Dallas, we have data on avg occupancy dropping to 85% at the worst point in 2009 (REIS data) in some key submarkets where we are buying today, our sensitivity analysis is built to show investors that rent can drop 10% from projections and fall to 75% occupancy and breakeven.

Does this apply across the board in all states or do some states not honor this rule?

@Dan Marshall the tenants are protected by their lease, so the two issues re selling now would be inconvenience of showings for the tenants, and whether the property will fetch a higher price as a retail sale (as you suggest) or as an investment...I'm with you--if it's more valuable to a homeowner, you might want to wait it out....or, you could cash for keys your tenants and sell sooner.

You can do an air pressure test but it's important to note there are no short cuts.