So guess there is just a safety factor for me because I know what the tenant will be like since I have rented in these areas myself.Some of the worst nightmare stories I've heard form long term investors I know (that favor SFR's now) are from 4-plex's they owned in bad parts of San Bernardino CA on blocks with mostly apartments.

If you assign the contract, your buyer takes on this risk.I would never accept a deal where there is no requirement for clear title, unless I had already done a title search myself and ensured that any liens were factored into my analysis.

This may factor into being able to argue that you are trying to keep up with the trends in the market.Do you do any flipping?

Back end can technically go to 45%, I think, but only if excellent credit and compensating factors that will improve the ratio in the next 12 mths, for example.

That was my first thought as well, but then I realized that there is principal pay-down that needs to be factored in; I don't have a calculator handy, but I'm guessing it's somewhere between 4-5%.Still crazy cheap, though!

I went by it this morning and there was a single car in the lot and most of the units are definitely empty.

My question has to do with how much more you can realistically get for a house with "wow" factor.

Factoring in a 30-year mortgage, $1,200 in annual home insurance, closing costs of $5,500 and maintenance costs of $100 a month, along with property taxes, he calculated that it would take a selling price, 10 years later, of $395,404 just to break even.

Jon, my plan was to finish drinking my coffee and hit the coin shop on the way to my office this morning.

I have not raised rents in the 2 1/2 years I've owned it but have reduced the vacancy factor to near zero.