our area is full of emtitle search revealed a 30-something k mortgage.seller cant / wont repayhow do i collect damages, and what do i ask fori am thinking at least 1 grand....500 title search and 500 other stuff

Check out this post I wrote on the BP forums about that same thing: How to Make a Million Dollars in Real Estate: A Step by Step PathAs for some book suggestions - I'd recommend all the books on this list, but specifically I'd recommend the "Unofficial Guide" book in that collection - as it seems the most similar to what you wanna do.

You can deduct the mortgage interest only.Your net taxable income is the rent you actually collect less all expenses and less depreciation.

Then is marketing the property to a buyer, flips(assigns or double close) the contract to the end buyer and collects the spread in between.

Backing off the one year cash out refi mark has been standard practice for decades, really sets prudent lending practices.

Around here they charge 10% of collected rents plus half a months rent to fill a vacancy.

I am a friendly landlord in their eyes.Here is an added benefit for me that you, Jon, remined me of; collecting multiple payments during the month allows me to be alerted of a problem sooner.

I totally agree with Jon, cut your losses and move on.What do you accomplish by trying to be difficult or collect more money?

Begin with the basics, real estate basics like text books, RE schools, from there you can look to strategies, the basics and knowing what is acceptable, common practice in your area will keep you out of trouble, which is easy to get into in RE.

(LOL)Some math, says 32.50/12=2.71 divided by (1-your tax rate), say 30% gives you .70. 2.71 divided by .7 = 3.87, so if you collect $3.87 that gives you your after tax income required to pay 32.50 in 12 months.