Yes, put in an offer this past week for a condo but it fell through, I definitely want to scale back my next investment and willing to pay more.

I don't want to waste anyone's time and wonder if there is a benefit at that scale.  

You can leverage the houses more, but if you're talking $ for $, I'd lend (or JV as a money partner)I borrow and lend private $ pretty regularly, prob niowhere near the scale Darren does, but feel free to give me a call to discuss too.

It would be great if there was a 0 to 10 scale that specified a home's condition.  

Starting with SFR's allows you to make your mistakes in a smaller scale, small enough to keep you in the game. 

Hopefully someone here will have some larger scale numbers for you to help figure out how big of a financial risk a tenant like that could pose in your area, and that can help you decide whether its doable or not. 

But what tipped the scale of my optimism was that the hold period was quite long (30 years I believe) which gives them the opportunity to demonstrate hold intent and make the claim that the conversion was just a clean up for best and highest use after a long hold.   

Obviously, finding competent/trustworthy ground troops in each city will be a key determinant in how quickly the business can scale.9) See if I can train my niece and/or nephew to eventually inherit the business.

A commercial broker scaling back who is 75 years old.

There are of course some RE companies that have a niche and never left it but they also have some very large scale and staff's etc..