It'll be over-improved & as close to maintenance free as I can make it, and any tenant that wants to live there is going to be looked over very carefully before they get a key.

That would discourage someone from improving the 3 and 4 unit housing stock in a community.

Now that will make a significant improvement in your standard of living especially if you intend on keeping the property for a while.Now, I haven’t made a decision as to what type of REI I want to do simply because I have no experience.

A 2nd drawback is the fact that you are often limited with making any improvements.

It's unfortunate but not surprising that there isn't some "neutral" website or source that can provide these emails for people who want to go directly to the listing agent, since the feeds don't contain the lockbox codes, loan info. or other sensitive information, but the whole RE agent/MLS system seems to be set up to protect agent's jobs rather than make transactions efficient or easy.

Now, you may be able to improve the property in some way and raise the value.

I had been working with the seller on the price and was able to get $5000 of the asking price, had the house appraised, talked to the property manager on how to improve the property, talked to Lowe's about screen doors, and made numerous trips to the house.

Of course, this is a way I have learned to be more efficient with a low income "D" level property.

In the Madison, WI area, I think we've past the bottom and we'll see some improvement in pricing and sales this year. :) More on my thoughts here: http://wp.me/p1dbYY-7V

As Rich pointed out, things change and it's rare that an area actually improves over time if it was a mature area...but there are some, they usually decline.Most who hold SFD rentals I know flip the inventory 7 to 10/12 years staying away from many of these issues.