Anyone have a similar deal?

@Nick Tzenevrakis - We actually do quite a bit of wholesaling/flipping in a rural area of Tennessee similar to yours.I'd recommend reading all you can about wholesaling and finding off market deals. 

I did something similar when I started I picked 3 cities after doing tons of research visited all 3 and made a decision.When I visited I saw they were building a new monorail in CLT and decided to invest there.Another thing to consider to make your life easier is compare flights from your home base.

@joshua wow your story is along the same lines as mine so with this I'm hoping to get similar results.

People increased occupancy by either moving in with family or friends so the demand went down but the banks were holding many foreclosed properties empty so the supply also diminished.There is no way of knowing if the next large recession/depression will behave similarly so the safe investor should be in a position to cover extended periods of reduce rents and potentially long periods of vacancy.We have been RE buy n hold investors since the mid- 1970s and have never experienced a significant rent decline in our market but in that time we have seen significant rent declines in other markets. 

I broke into the business in 2009 using a similar strategy.

We inherit portfolios frequently that have situations similar in that the tenants do not have leases and they also may not want to pay rent. 

What do similar properties in this price range have?

When I analyze deals I always challenge it against the lowest rental rate in the area for a similar but less desirable property.

As a residential property, it would go for less than $200k, but since it's zoned for commercial uses, the seller is asking $600k.I'm looking up comparable properties on Loopnet and Craigslist to compare what similar land is going for in Garland.