I just sold a spec, I built a house for my self last year and finished a spec this year, I bough the lots at tax sale, and I was the GC, HVAC, Tile, Flooring, Cabinet, Painter, and Misc. guy, made a nice profit, but the crappy part is taxes, its like a flip, short term gains. good luck!

If not, better to get an easy one for the first one.....And don't worry too much about the interest rates. they are still pretty low (historically anyway, I won't even tell you what they were for my first house :-)The numbers just have to work, and they can work with even higher rates.....there are other variables, including the perceived high rates keeping a lot of your competitors out of the market.

Almost everyone here on BP will tell you that they wish they had started earlier, myself included.4.

You may be a volunteer/humanitarian, but that does not include your REI business. so point them towards some help and hold them to their lease agreement.All of my good faith would have gone out the window once they lied to me about stealing my check. 

Heard about Bigger Pockets through my self-directed research and it has been very eye-opening!

@Bruce Woodruff it's a free country, so you can do anything you want.On the other hand, many people jump to conclusions without all the facts and often don't process facts correctly.My manager's brother-in-law belongs to a very exclusive country club - they've host PGA events regularly.They approached our management company about potential rentals that their DOCUMENTED temporary H-1B visa workers could use - with multiple workers staying in the property for the  summer.We couldn't find an owner willing to agree to a short-term lease at an acceptable price.So, how accurate are your assumptions with the limited data posted?

This includes family vacation homes, business property, etc.  

And that's not a sarcastic question, possible answers include but are not limited to...If management/ownership has been lazy and there's a lot of vacancy or below market units, that you can rent out and/or bring up to current market, then maybe you offer a little bit more for that upside potential. 

Innago also has a feature to only accept payment in full including all fees and expenses.

There are lots of basic calculators online, including right here under the 'tool' tab at the top to help run numbers to see if the deal makes sense.