Do you have your realtor sending you auto MLS updates daily?

If you are disciplined enough (I use auto pay) to make additional principle payments each month then your 30 year can easily turn into a 15 year amortization (or 20 or 18 - whatever).

But it may not be an optimal strategy for a novice real estate investor merely as a mechanism to save a few $$ on flips.Sorry for the length of this.

the only time this would not apply would be government foreclosures (HUD's fannies, freddy and VA's) they update the websites and then there is a several day lag before that information is updated on the mlx.if your realtor cannot set up auto alerts get a new realtor

Think mechanicals you're supposed to depreciate - water heaters, stoves, A/C, plus roofing.  

I'm a bit old school about stuff like this, just like my dad taught me just enough about cars so I wouldn't get screwed over (too badly =) by mechanics.

Do not just buy a property and get a QC deed make sure you get a property free of leans and encomberances.In the Fort Wayne market there can be recorded leans such as mechanics leans, mortgages and back taxes, water bills and there can be unrecorded encomerances such as neghborhood code enforements which are not always necessary recorded but move with the property to the owner. 

Veterans may get different levels of disability based on their evaluation by the VA.And you're right -- as long as the person is still alive, the money just gets auto deposited into their account. 

2) The prospective sellers (husband and wife) are both elderly, so with a longer amortization schedule (targeting 25-30 years) that will outlast their lives, how do the mechanics look upon their deaths (CFD being transferred to next of kin for example). 

As the auto industry has come back, so has Kokomo.