While I like to think of myself as an optimist, there are plenty of oppurtunist REIs that use such advertising to take advantage of amateur deal hunters without having to pay them.hope that helped!

I was way overly optimistic about EVERYTHING.

Owners almost always are overly optimistic about the income.Finally, as Ryan said, if you find a great deal (this isn't one), you've got to look at it NOW!

And I figured with 70% occupancy (which might be optimistic, here or in Gatlinburg) I'd make about 5%/year, cash on cash.Let me just check and see what my money market account is doing these days, hmmm, I'll keep my extra money in it.all cash

Ask them before you ever buy the property what comp sales are going for in the area and ask them to be conservative (no good comes of being optimistic before the sale, plan for the worst I say).

Thanks for the info Les - and I knew about bidding on HUD - i was being incredibly optimistic. ;-).

The lot size for the R-3 is 7500 SF and that of the C-2 is 6534 SF.Am I just too optimistic, or could the C-2 be worth a hell of a lot more?

But, hard to spend.I would consider 0% appreciation to be fairly optimistic, unless there is a specific driver.

Even if you just refi for the cash you have outstanding, $59,445, with pretty optimistic assumptions, 6.5%, 30 years, the payment (P&I) is $375.

I am an eternal optimist so I always seek the naysayer.