,While no investment is completely passive, proper real estate investing should be relatively boring.You asked about the process and major considerations.

@Jake AndronicoAs desirable areas near city centers become more expensive and densely populated, there will be a resurgence of suburbs located approximately 10-30 miles outside major cities.

.- It's very difficult to argue about travel being a business expense if you're just going to look at properties, I would argue against it in a majority of cases.- Depends on what you're doing specifically, but usually I'd recommend getting an EIN at least to give access to business bank accounts- Repeating #1, if you're going to a property and 100% of your time is spent doing renovations and the like, sure, but if any of it is for personal benefit, that'd be disallowed.

:Class A Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% the more recent norm.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 680+ (roughly 5% probability of default), zero evictions in last 7 years.Class B Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 1-3 years for positive cashflow, decent amount of relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% should be applied only if proper research done to support.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 620-680 (around 10% probability of default), some blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 5 yearsClass C Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, immediate cashflow and at the lower end of relative rent & value appreciation.

Screening and Gaurantors are important, you might want to look at majors for some more serious ones that don't have time to party. 

Most of the time, we resolve the situation in less than three months through cash-for-keys agreements, court mediation, or by creating enough pressure that the tenants decide to leave on thier own.We currently manage over 700+ units and flip about 20 multifamily properties a year, the majority of which have inherited tenant problems.

JohnFirst look at your states licensing laws, they can easily be found online.

But this was late 90s so way before on line stuff had taken off.

@Derek Heinz you might be better off finding a major fixer-upper, getting a hard money loan (HML) to acquire it. 

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