On top of that you would be paying 3-4k for the privilege of losing a couple hundred a month.

At the same time, if I can put a few hundred dollars in it for paint and curb appeal and increase the value of the home a thousand dollars or more then that is a pretty good return on the dollar.It depends on the home and what you want to do with it.

I make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year just off probate leads alone.

For seasoned investors reading this, they may be thinking “ok so what, that’s nothing†but $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 and even $13, 200 (long story) is like the equivalent of a hundred grand when you are broke.

Maintenance, cleaning, gardener (don't expect your tenant to take care of it) will put you in the hole another couple hundred when averaged out.

There were a couple hundred on the market in early 2009 ... in your price range ($120k), I suspect you won't have quite the competition ....

I have purchased more propoerties with seller financing with using a hundred dollars earnest money (or less) and never having to provide POF.

If it's not at least a couple hundred thousand (and you haven't known all couple hundred thousand tenants), I'm pretty sure it's not a representative sample.Sorry, a couple thousand out of 250 million really doesn't mean anything statistically.

So, when that room full of hundreds of people hears something, they think it is a revelation and then off they go - without even further researching what they just heard.

I regularly see homes in my area listed on the Cinci MLS or Cleveland MLS even though those markets are hundreds of miles away!