If the house sits in the center of 8 acreas square, it would probably carry the value a little better in keeping with the 50% for the excess land.If 5 to 10 acres is customary in that area and the comps support the additional land, then go with the comps.That's my quick opinion.

The lending environment just flat-out sucks right now!

Is it likely that one would deny the national housing price decline because they live in an insulated pocket of the market that has only seen flat-line price changes or even some appreciation?

Unknown to most every lease-option home seller in the country, options have an expected value, any amounts collected in excess of what a fair market valuation would be can easily be shown as a principal reduction toward the purchase price, in court.

Another option to hedge against moves in the Treasury curve (which would effect LIBOR, which would effect bank rates) are the two ETFs: FLAT and STPP.FLAT bets on the yield curve flattening (it is unusually steep at the moment)andSTPP bets on the yield curve getting steeper (slightly possible in the short term, but not such a good long term bet).These are fairly new products.

The message in the printed matter should highlight your property, and should also encourage the recipient to refer friends or family (after all, those people could already be familiar with the area and find it desirable to be close to the friend or family member).Any FSBO ads will always get a lot or responses from realtors who will do just about anything to get you to list the house for sale with them.As mentioned by an earlier post, getting listed with a flat fee broker can get you on the MLS.

Loading up any more debt on the property than what makes you break even for tax purposes probably wouldn't make much sense (unless you have an alternate use for the excess debt you would be putting on the property).Of course I'm not an accountant nor do I play one on tv so all of the standard disclaimers apply.

Thai, You're leaving out a lot of expenses in the real world, including vacancies, maintenance, legal fees, evictions, damage done by tenants in excess of the security deposit, capital expenses (not technically an operating expense), entity maintenance, utilities (if only during vacancies), etc, etc, etc.

I am about to put in a couple offers on some short sale 3-flat buildings.

It's the barbeque...Others may say that Texas has been adding jobs and population at a steady rate without the excessive run up in real estate prices.