If he defaults on his lease, leaves your place a wreck @ move-out, or he is just a problem tenant, you will have to evict him and/or file a law suit to collect for damages.

I'm wanting to "break into investing" by getting an investment property that I can somehow put under contract, and collect the cash flow.

I grew up there as a child before moving to Canton.120,000 should get you a decent starter home in Woodstock.You can find one that used to be in the 180k to 200k range at the peak back in 2008 for 120k now.When looking if you are not happy at 120,000 in what you find bump up to 140,000 or so and you can negotiate down to your 120 range.You don't need to pay off your credit card balances just get them below 33% of available credit limit and it will boost your score.I know doctors that open up practices and have to pay off very expensive equipment over time but didn't know the schooling was so expensive.

Also in Indiana there is a maximum of 10% on the finders fee that one can collect notifying the ex-owner of surplus overbid funds.

I want to use Buildium as an accounts receivable ledger and payment collection service, which it is set up great for except for this flaw.

Try making bullets beforehand so you are sure to collect everything you need during the call.

Then we collectively do the repairs once he owns the house.

Go down to the "RESPA'S statutes explained: consumer protections and prohibited practices" section.

In practice it is hard for the small real estate investor to know what is optimal because banks are generally guarded with their internal underwriting policies.

It is just at the bottom of my list - I am set on a hiring a manager and taking less cash flow.In other words, my acceptable CAP rate for a property is probably much less then someone who relies on rental income to live.My time is far more valuable spent on my business then it would be finding/screening tenants/collecting rents/advertising/repairs.