This is a great chance to speak with the club officials and introduce yourself.

The mortgage, while in my name, is paid by my LLC and the property is officially owned by the LLC.

So how can we as investors or the City officials of Detroit convince people that Detroit will change for the better??

Go to your counties property appraiser website and look for tab called property records or official records.

Ask your bank officiers to be introduced to SEASONED local real estate investors.

I have not run any official comps but zillow and other sites like it have the houses vaulted from 40k-50k a piece.

What Texas does offer to homeowners however, is the option to pay for testing (as I am recommending you do) and once the results are received - assuming they show no further mold problems - provide an official Texas Department of Insurance form completed by the air testing company showing that all is well.

When he goes to basic that officially starts his active duty commitment and he can legally break the lease, see here for your source - http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/sscra/a/scra2.htm.

Here is the official evite for our local BP meetup meeting.

Welcome to BiggerPockets Brendon Loucks.The very fact that you set the goal for yourself, officially, to do your first deal within a year GREATLY increases your chances of accomplishing that goal.