I do not use leverage at all with my acquisitions this is only partly because I own most of my real estate in My Self Directed IRA but even if I were to use borrowed money I would first evaluate the potential of a property on a cash on cash basis and then determine how much additional risk I am willing to add to increase my return by using other peoples money.

Experience a huge factor for me when I evaluate a potential new lending relationship.

hi hillary,in my case, i can't refi because i refied 2 yrs ago with GMAC and under the rules they give you just one "free refi if you are under water". my loan is around 120k, but the house would appraise for around 115k, so i'd need to put around 30% to get 20% equity.btw, i was able to log into the ocwen account without any issues.

Steps 1) find who the owner is - done2) find how to contact them3) ask them if they want to sell4) Get a price or some indication how motivated the seller is5) Negotiate a price - This step involves running comparables and evaluating the deal6) Figure how to structure and exit strategy7) Ink the deal - get it under contract8) Execute your exit strategyThese steps are in rough order however each deal will progress in a different way, so they may not be in exactly the same order each time but clearly you do not figure exit strategy before knowing if a house is even for sale.

An agent I spoke with got me thinking that letting a bunch of agents find opportunities initially would be more cost effective at start up.Having the discussion also made me realize that although I like the idea of Home Inspection and I think the knowledge gained would be of a benefit when evaluating property condition, I just want something to fall back on.

Patrick is right that you should do a more thorough, long term analysis to evaluate a property.

I would say to get as many comps as you can an evaluate the situation as best as you can and then take it from there.

I logged <500 miles on my road bike last summer and didn't compete any du/triathlons or ultramarathons in 2013.

Every time an officer is dispatched to an address it is logged.

Or do you take each opportunity and evaluate it based on that opportunity?