well you could start by asking a few realtors in the area how healthy the market is. as for finding a tax sale something i would do is buy a tax property in a more healthy market then a poorer one just to eliminate some of the risk. another route you can use is bird doggers to help find a property for just as cheap or cheaper then a tax sale. i have about 30 i places all over the country and hey find what they can for me in there free time in return i pay then 300- 500 buck per house i close on. a good bird dogger can be very valuable and at times cheaper then targeted mailings and bandit signs.

Basically Zillow pulls IDX data from the MLS's (among other sites) which agents are paying for, then Zillow sells those same agents ad space on their site so we can reach the consumers that are going there.

I am sure with persistence you will be successful in commercial real estate; just realize that learning and experience in this area is a lot more time consuming and expensive than residential.

My guess is that give it a few years and government red tape will make a good idea too costly or time consuming to implement on a reasonable scale, although I hope I am wrong.

You will still get a some single condos, etc but it should also give you anything of two or more units.You also can get a realtor to do this for you- you never get the entire (or freshest) of the mls listings on the consumer sites.

There is nothing wrong with healthy fear, especially when dealing with family as investors.

However, you're paying down your mortgage very quickly so you might consider that in your equation, then you'll see you're doing pretty well.Cash-on-cash return is not what you want if you make a healthy salary.

One understood that a time consuming learning curve was necessary for success in this field, that there were no shortcuts or instant riches.You need to start with the basics; real estate investing is only profitable in one of two ways, either you buy a property for less than it eventually is worth or the property you buy has a positive net income generated.

I'm not an attorney but generally speaking if the loan was originated by a broker there is no usury violation and if it's truly a non-consumer loan required disclosures are minimal.

At times it becomes a time consuming effort to deploy funds to a deal.I am setting up a QRP where the plan to be attached to my LLC and I could check book control control the IRA funds .Would like to get comments from some one who has done QRP or know about it.