The owner/seller/vender takes a mortgage on a property in which they are also the vender.Rent-to-own can mean a variety of things:At one end of the spectrum you have a standard Lease (rent) with a separate Option to purchase (own) the property at a pre-determined price within a specific window in the future.  

Cal local micro areas and found that just in the Inland Empire alone it has a vast variety of real estate for investing.

It covered a wide variety of topics (RLTO, tax appeals, fair housing, Section 8, crime prevention, etc).

It will help you to know there are many forums available on a wide variety of subjects.

Generally Allentown is very management intensive, especially in Center City where the turnover is high and the tenants are of the lower income variety.  

Its relatively inexpensive ($2-$5 a foot), tough, looks nice and comes in variety of finishes.

Brian Murray thanks for the links, now a flower on linkedin.

It's  good place to mingle with a variety of landlords and learn about the many intricacies of the laws in Massachusetts. 

I received a variety of different answers to my building code questions when talking to city inspectors or zoning over the phone.

There is no monthly PMI with these particular varieties of conventional loans.If you use FHA, you will have the upfront MIP, as well as monthly PMI, unless you put down 20%.So, the bottom line is, what would you do otherwise with your available cash if you didn't put it into the down payment on your residence?