Your basis is what you paid, plus some purchase closing costs plus what you put into the house before its ready to rent.

Guess in the future you have to be sure of present and repaired values, repair cost estimates and be ready to pull the trigger.

Buying up some properties as good rentals and holding them until you are ready to rehab and sell for big $$ is the best way.

Nothing for vacancy, long term capital (even if its rehabbed, if you plan to hold for 20 years you'll buy roofs, furnaces, ACs and other pricey items), routine maintenance, make ready costs between tenants (some, but not all, may be covered by security deposits), legal expenses, lengthy evictions, accounting expenses, etc.Now there will be some months, most months even, when you only expenses are the PM, taxes and insurance.

I'm ready to come home, so to speak; and I'm ready to rehab and rent some more houses

I'm not ready to act yet, probably within the next 60 days though.I'm an experienced investor, but I have been out of the game since 2008.Are you a wholesaler?

Jon...just ready Jeff's post on buying out of state....

Ready to see the deposit!!!

No one is saying to keep tons of gold, but it doesn't hurt to be ready just in case.Putting silver aside, if you are scared looking at this graph:http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.plxYou should actually be looking at this, which gives a better picture, I think:http://seekingalpha.com/article/47921-an-historic-look-at-the-gold-dollar-ratioIt goes higher from there.About gold's value, I too always ponder about the value people give to it, but they have for thousands of years.

You need to be monitoring the market, and you need to be ready to act swiftly.