In order of their responses off the top of my head (in order): parents (~70%), student related (student loan, stipend, personal education loan, grant/award) probably 20%, insurance claim or related 5%, heir or employer benefit 5%.

This is one of those deal that i don't even have to pull out my calculator to see how much is the return before i buy.Unlike what you see on the TV show where they they chew each other head off at the court house to buy property, or have a team of 20 people show up to gut down the crappy house and put in fancy stuff.

Just a heads up it's awesome for buying cheap fixif and then renting out though!

I tried and tried to determine a way that I could by my first property with the worry in the back of my head.

@Cyle Lublin I feel like I missed the boat with most of those areas (including indian village) for super good deals but maybe the new center area is one to be considered, I head that was getting some traction too. 

They're more numbers to do calculations in your head...Cap rate, I feel, is not too different... it has a lot more bearing than those other 2 rules, but a blogger at BP pointed out, a higher cap rate could simply mean that the previous owner didn't keep the property well maintained...I have $230 worth of real estate investing books in my shopping cart on Amazon.

What are the top 3 things that you know now that you didn't know heading into the transaction?

Ok, thanks for the heads up on this.  

If you secured another cash flowing property with the equity from the first, you'd be doubling down on that bet while hedging at the same time (cash flow).Either way you win, unless you can find a better return on your investment by selling and re-investing your tax free capital gains elsewhere, OR... the US economy could collapse due to the financial ineptitude/corruption taking place w/in the beltway and it could be an all out Zombie Apocalypse headed your way!

I'm not sure how Canadian appraisals work, but they could use the "income approach" as an easy method of showing how much more the place could be worth.Here is how I look at your numbers:You are spending $70,000 to renovatedAn extra $835/month (post 10% PM fee) is headed for your pocket12 x $835 = $10,020 per year10020/70000 = 14.3% cash on cash returnI would not invest in that because I like my money to be making 15% in RE investments, but if your minimum is 14.3% or lower, it looks like a good investment.