We are all in the game.I profit no matter what the economy is doing.I profit more when the media says the economy is in bad shape.Because fear causes people to run scared away from money that is laying around.I think it's all a matter of knowing what is going on and that these are just cycles that are always occuring and adjusting your strategy to fit.There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to buying and selling properties.Laws change ....we adaptMarkets change.... we adaptFed changes rates....we adaptBanks tighten up on their lending ....adapt More forclosures ....adaptCan anyone tell me of one market condition that hasn't existed in the past.It has all happened before and it will happen again in the future.Very few inovations in Real Estate.Just people who know how to put it together.

Do I have to be concerned whether the agreement is state applicable?

Their concern is, if we take a property back, we have to sell it low enough to compete with everybody else's REO.I feel like we are in an environment where banks are actually self-destructing by driving property values down (dumping their stock).They get into a vicious cycle of lowering property values because they are forced to keep lowering REO prices to move them.

This concern has kept me from being an aggressive investor for many years.Do you or anyone else here think it would be worhwhile to take a home inspector course to be a better real estate investor?

It comes out of his proceeds.Really, you don't need to concern yourself with the sales commission if you are the buyer, other than the fact that buying through a realtor means you can't do a "no money down" deal.

In fact, even during the first year, the newbie will have maintenance expense because the majority of maintenance is caused by tenants, not by the age of things.

Only disadvantage is that my piece of paper is lessened in value but that no longer matters to me, as far as I am concerned now the only person who’ll ever size up my degree to see if I’m “qualified” is myself ;)

If so, you're likely one of the best landlords in the country, and I would recommend buying much larger apartment buildings/complexes where you can make a LOT more money...My biggest concern based on your answers is that if you're doing all the work yourself (leasing, maintenance, turn-over, landscaping, evictions, etc), you're probably spending at least a third of time time (if not a lot more) on this one property, and this one property is only earning you $20K per year.So, you basically have created a job for yourself, that's earning you less than $60K/year.

Just wondering if anyone has any ingenious ideas as far as marketing is concerned.

They pay early and have not caused any other problems to this point.