You are speaking very generally about the price and the neighborhood.

Here I Phoenix I have about given up on finding decent single families in good neighborhoods.

I guess it would depend on the neighborhood.

I used to do these for fun years ago and soon remembered (after posting this) that my primary way of tracking one down is to visit my friendly neighborhood county recorder's office and search for loans by the same lender (HSB) and see who canceled/discharged them.

In my area, if you do the work, you can get a 1200sqft 3/2 in a decent neighborhood.

The local newspaper said Portland down 4% year over year but somebody on BP posted something saying down 1.6%.Our apartment market is on fire and large new developments are filling as fast as they can build them.We have among the lowest vacancies in the country with 3.1% in apartments.Cap rates went from 6.1% in 2008 to 6.8% in 2009 and 2010 and 6.86% for first half 2011.Housing prices down 28% from peak August 2007.

Holding 20 years you'll probably get a new roof, appliances and how many paint jobs.....The neighborhood will be 20 years older,that 100k ranch style could be nearing 40/50 years old.

I don't want to waste their time or mine because there was some feature of the house or neighborhood that's a dealbreaker for me.

The problem is, I don't really want to own in that neighborhood.

There have been some poorly done rehabs in the neighborhood I am working in and unfortunately anything can qualify as remodeled...including homes with stained carpet and 12 broken windows...ugh!