After you knock this one out of the park you can look at more expensive homes as you get more comfortable/more capital.

I went and knocked on the door the day before and introduced myself, they let me in and showed me the place so I put in an offer slightly higher than anyone else was willing to go since I knew the place didn't need much work and luckIy the bank accepted the offer.

To knock on doors of pre-foreclosures and If we close on one of those deals how much would  you pay that person.

Good idea Mark... although I'm not an advocate of doing biz with friends in this nature because foreclosing on him would can the friendship if it came to that.Hey Travis - What if you simply found the property via Craigslist or Zillow yourself, approached the seller via phone call, door knock or yellow letter, and structured the lease option so that you get some down payment (3%) market dependent as your fee and your buddy can apply the rest of his cash toward fixing the property?  

Then there was the fire in the stove (bought a new stove) and the dryer kicked the bucket (bought a used dryer) and other than that (knocking on lots of wood) the year was fairly uneventful.

Knock on their door?

If you're not licensed you go knock on their door and give them a free report.

Don't expect to be the only one knocking on their door, and "knocking on their door" will be more effective.

Vacancies....well I've been renting my homes for about 7 years now and I've never had one vacant month (knock on wood).

The 50% rule assumes you do not pay utilities beyond water/sewer/trash... have about 5 - 8% for taxes... about 5% for insurance... vacancies in the 5 - 10% range... repairs and CAPEX in the 10 - 20% range and 8 - 12% for Property Management.At 25% vacancy your expenses are probably closer to 70% knocking a 2% deal down to a 10.6% CoC return.