Hey all,

I'm interested in purchasing a vacation rental that I can rent out the majority of the year but use a few weeks for my own enjoyment a few weeks a year. Anyone have any suggestions for areas that have prove...

Not that this is a bad thing or a deal killer - but don't assume that an area by a prison will turn into a hot neighborhood.And most importantly @Billy Guyette is ABSOLUTELY right that in C/D properties - management company is everything.

I don't know how hot the market is in that specific area though...if people are really fighting for deals , maybe someone will go for it. 

In the hot market of Atlanta there is no such thing as a pocket listing anymore which if they existed at all it was a questionable practice by the broker to not publicly list every deal.I have a buyers agent that I use but I have not signed an exclusive agreement nor is there any need.  

I asked for the formula for a "Hot opportunity", and then gave me a pile of crap including that the true property value was published by the lender as part of the NOD.

If this is as hot a property as you say it is, consider averaging cost of utilities for the month, and rolling that into the rent.

You would think that's true, but in Dane county 70% ARV barely works right now, the market is too hot.

Especially since we can probably do a realtor-less deal, and the market is hot in Charlotte. 

On top of that, I'm no investment guru, I just know how to follow good advice, ignore bad advice (unfortunately there's a lot of that on BP too), and have gotten very lucky that the market where I live has been VERY hot for the last couple years.My big general advice to the community would be this: take advantage of all the subsidies available to you; get as many conforming Freddie/Fannie loans you can, try to live for two years in your over-performing flips, unless you're working at a high volume, and learn your business. 

Pretty hot market right now!