I have found that in most cases, credit score (along with good references) is a very good indicator of a good tenant.

If that's the case then that would indicate separate utilities in which $1500 is good since you would only be responsible for water, sewer and house electric.

Question #1 Does this info (the owner’s house for sale) indicate a possible “motivated seller”?

@Robert Taylor Keep in mind that when the 30 letter was served, there was no indication this was to be considered a companion animal.

My house is listed at full retail, it's in good condition, and there's no indication anywhere at all in the MLS write up of motivation.

This approach requires far less cash than actually buying the property.Asher: you indicate you have a down payment.

I basically set a price that gives me 3x my initial equity investment and indicated i might be interested in only selling my 8 unit (just bought 2 mos ago, great cash flow, but lower income, a bit of a PIA to manage).

o For plumbing, assuming the plumbing pipes are not made from a substandard material (like Polybutylene) and assuming I don't see anything that indicates a major plumbing issue, I assume there are none.

Maybe this is a new economic indicator - subs leaving jobs.

We did look at section 8, but unfortunately the list has been closed since 2006 and they can give no indicator as to when they will open it back up.