The market in Austin right now is red-hot.

If the rooter gets there and something is broken, it's on me, I call the repair dudes and I reimburse them for their rooting cost.

I painted the entire outside (took it outside) and it has red fingernails. karen's right about them being deep.ha, ha about my pic . . . i'm going to look for a better one.

It raises red flags in my mind to enter into a lease with a tenant that is starting out on the wrong foot.

Start with the rental that's in the red and work from there.

I also have roots in the the Hudson Valley and am interested in a those counties as well.

In today's red-hot rental market (Virginia is no exception) there are some awesome deals out there, and brokers who bring deals are compensated at 3%.JV

JD Mathieu, welcome aboard :) let me know if you want a copy of our deal evaluator spreadsheet - it's pretty straightforward, and you can alter it to suit your particular conditions.Best of luck, and you're absolutely right - take the time to learn more about the market before jumping in - don't let anyone push you to buy "now" or "here" - there's always a red-hot market somewhere, and the world's your oyster, particularly with today's technology and its implications for the savvy investor.

Plus I think the banks are a lot more amenable to short sales these days since it helps them speed up the sale of the house and avoids any foreclosure red tape that they're having to deal with.I would guess that your best bet though would be to check with wholesalers and see where they're getting the most bang for the buck in terms of strategies.

Some ideas I had was to stucco the whole building, add spanish red tile roof, make a larger nice sign facing the street.