Hello, I am new to real estate investing and I have a tentative verbal deal on a pre-market lake property that I would eventually like to make my retirement home (10 years or so).

@Mark SvendsenI would have given them to the buyer of the home at no cost.

It all depends on the areas you're looking in, I would advise focusing on the median priced homes, those types of areas normally don't have a lot of vacancies in my experience. 

Richmond, VA continues to be a growing city with affordable homes. 

I sold my one house that had been section 8 last year, and my tenant had improved her income, so she hadn't been sec 8 for about a year before that.

@Shawn D AugustiBy start up costs if you mean repairs or improvements done to the property before it's placed into service, those expenses are added to your cost basis and depreciated.

When buying your first property, especially multi-family, you're bound to frequently come across occupied units and often while the tenants are home.  

Florida, where I'm at, is a judicial state.In a non-judicial state, the lender can foreclose on a home without going through the courts, and can foreclose on someone within a couple of months.

I think that this could be a great way to find people I could help get their homes sold by assigning them to a contractor/investor buyer.

It was a home run and I am ready to do it again.