My “math” only took into account PITI, condo fees, and management fees at $850, $232, and $123 respectively.I did not realize that you also needed to account for vacancies, maintenance, and CAPEX on top of that to get a true indication of cash flow.Adding these to the mix, my actual cash flow was -$585/month.Yikes.Upon my move, I figured I could save some money by paying off the second mortgage which had a remaining balance of about $11k.This dropped my actual loss down to ~500/month on a $23k investment.My property, originally worth 115k, for which I paid full price, was now worth ~$90k.Mind you, my stock portfolio had also dropped significantly.For my next military assignment, the Air Force moved me to Edwards AFB, CA in 2009 which is in the Mojave Desert about 1.5 hrs.

Li Wa, I'm very surprised to hear that Upper Darby is that bad...I have scoped out several neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia and Upper Darby remains one of the cleanest and spacious (few if any row houses)   There are patches of not so great streets, but for the most part I don't see anything overly negative about it.  

My idea so far is to buy a duplex, triplex or quadplex and live in one of the units and then of course rent the remaining units out.

If I have a seller looking to hold a second mortgage for 20% and I put down 10% , are there any banks or institutions willing to give me a loan structured this way for the remaining 70%.

I was 100% satisfied with the work.

The property has n nearly 50000 in equity and about 63000 remaining on the mortgage.   

I have also used 123Landlord.com and it does not satisfy anything more than keeping track of rent income and expenses.

To ensure it is a legitimate tax deduction - what loan documents  between me and my overseas private lender are required to satisfy the IRS.

The demand for townhomes/single-family homes within the city itself remains strong, so the highest rise in prices will likely be experienced within the Washington city limits.

This may have helped AVG Price remain stable between $380k & $400k range.