Others, who perhaps prefer to use their cash for the rehab, or have run dry, try to borrow as much as possible and can be LTV constrained by some lenders (i.e. what’s the value of a lender who will only loan you 65% of what you need?).

I'll be looking mostly at single family homes preferably on the north side of Austin and in the surrounding communities.

There are basically 2 choices: owner / 3rd party financing.

I prefer Facebook for the investment analysis, intellectual discussions, and great advice...oh wait, that is BP.

Once you decide on what you believe the value to be, you can submit this (best done with proper evidence such as appraisal by registered appraiser -preferably MAI or SRA) to the title company as a insurance claim.

5 ounce are my favorites in gold and I prefer junk silver coins and 1 ounce ingots.

preferably for free but i'd pay for it if i had to

Steve, we had a fire, and the one thing I would stress is to be careful if they are offering a choice between writing you a check for the estimate or having their list of contractors repair it.

This is purely personal preference, but I'd probably wait 6 months before raising any rent, and then just do it one tenant at a time (based on their renewal date or something) so if they do leave, you won't be faced with 4 vacancies :) Also - I would find out how much you can really get for rent from these places (maybe place some "test ads" on craigslist and see who calls, and look for comps, as you have.)Good luck!

I think if you are investing in real estate, you can still be looking for a quick buck, but you understand things can take some time to develop. compound interest is very powerful and if you are not in it for the long term, you will likely not be too impressedPeople are too emotional and probably log into thier stock market account too often and play off of those emotions. i am no different, but my stock market preference is dollar cost average for the long term. i do this through index funds and mostly retirement accounts. the stock market is at all time highs and while it had a huge crash, most people got scared away. as the stock market returned, people statring talking more about it. as warren buffet says and this goes for any investment. people want to buy clothes, cars, ect.