I feel like it would be way easier to more accuratley determine fair market value of homes, avg rent in the area, etc...with a realtor.

If your grandma sells you a $100K house for $48K, they will find it and she will have penalties for Medicade benefits.If your grandma sells you the house for fair market value, there are no penalties.

Again, ask about this up front. finding a good, reliable, fair money source is crucial to success.

I agree with the open house or you can communicate via email or phone with the responders to sort out the "lookers" vs "serious renters" , then schedule an Open House if the interest seem to be that high.

Hey guys,I'm also a fairly new investor in Philadelphia.

Also, I would offer a fair share of monthly cashflow, not sure what this number would look like maybe 30%-50%?

I don't have much experience dealing with craigslist postings for property but it seems to me that you would want to get into an actual discussion fairly soon vs e-mail negotiations.

I think 30% is fairly unrealistic.

As one might imagine, we also have a fair amount of former tenant balances we need to collect on.We've given a couple collection agencies a try in the past but have not yet found any that really delivered.

a client called me after seeing one of my craigslist ads looking for a home. she actually knows what home she wants and has communicated with the owner a month ago when it was for rent but nothing more then that. the home was up for rent and now its for sale. my client can afford about $2000 a month and about $5000 (maybe a little more) as a downpayment. what should i do in this situation to put this deal together.