In the commercial space, a vendor carry-back is often a second mortgage which enables the buyer to lower his/her downpayment from 25% to 10 - 15%.If you had a primary mortgage on a property at an excellent rate - say 3% - and have accumulated sufficient equity (say 50%), but an opportunity has fallen in your lap and you need to pull out some of that equity.  

I was thinking that a $100k/yr income would be sufficient to allow for spending and saving.  

I personally don't consider punctuality the most important skill when working with someone, I prefer extensive knowledge and expertise who forgets to email me back than the vast majority of unskilled agents who immediately return my emails because they have nothing better to do.Just my thoughts.Adam

It was a small galley kitchen with sufficient light, with small adjacent dining area with appropriate over head table lighting.  

If they plan on negative cash flow in the first year or two - do they have sufficient reserves?

Continue to go thru vast amount of great information on BP and setup up your key word alerts.  

At least once a day these days, I'll get a PM, email or phone call from someone who starts the conversation with something like this:I'm very interested in getting started in real estate investing and am looking for a mentor...Typically, the next line is a request for me to mentor them.To help all of the new investors who have done this (or are planning to do this), I thought I'd take a few minutes to clarify a few thoughts I have on this topic...especially given that I'm sure there are plenty of other BP contributors who deal with the same exact thing on a daily basis...Let me jump right to the point:  The vast majority of people who ask me this question aren't really looking for a mentor...they're looking for a coach.  

Now, if you own 1200 other units, they may think the management ability is there, ability to pay, the experience level is good, the title interest is then sufficient they may do the deal.

But if your deposit is not sufficient, your landlord may sue you, probably in small claims court where the limit is $5,000 in Florida.

Once the oversupply hits, income starts going down, sellers that bought during the good times start selling, buyers tend to go away.The optimal time to buy is when the market is beginning to improve but the vast majority are still in pessimistic mode.It is unlikely that a seller will be pricing in future issues during a strong market.