After you feel confident you've done your homework, you could probably find a small loan at a decent rate.

Sorry, the math doesn't work like this.

Now if the roof is "SHOT" which means so bad that it must be tore out and replaced then you have to actually do the math.

The payment they couldn't make.And, they know what you paid, and can do the math and know that you're actually making money on this deal.

Get a model, do your homework and don't settle for break even - especially in this market!!!

I'm going to do my homework and get going.

Matt, Being from the area, some more important factors than lose listed are will the investment area make sense math wise before even needing to go further.Most of the tri-state area does not cash flow due to generally higher property costs and the high property taxes.

If your goal is cash-on-cash return, then you might run the math a little differently, but as they say, a dollar is a dollar.

So if I pulled this off and sold after 5 years, the rough math would give me an average yearly ROI in the neighborhood of 38% (adding in that forced appreciation).

Originally posted by Joel Owens:The science adds up to existence on other planets.Agreed with both Joel and Mitch...For anyone interested in what the "science" behind this might be (it's actually more "math" for the most part, if you ignore the purely empirical evidence), you might be interested in reading about The Drake Equation:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation