It's cheap and easy.

Even if I were able to find a house that cheap I'd have to put in 30-40k into renovations just to make that livable around here.In my area, north of Boston that price is just about nonexistant.

A cheap way to make real estate signs is as follows:Use a computer to create the content you want.

i get the most adequate replacement cost..you can always buy a separate liability umbrella and they're relatively cheap..of course, an attorney told me that you don't really get the money if the building burns to the ground anyways...they just pay off your note and you're left with the dirt...haven't had to worry about that experience yet (knock on wood), so i don't know for sure...

Once you have built some equity couple years down the line, refinance out of it and get the cosigner off the loan- If you have good credit and little debt, you can even get a conventional loan at 3% down (vs 3.5% for FHA) which has cheaper PMI (vs much more expensive MIP for FHA) and is more lax in terms of regulations- Finally, if this doesn't work, you can certainly go the DSCR route/owner financing but it's not cheap/easy (Seasoned investors/pros make seller financing sound easier than it is.

I think cheap energy prices and low interest rates will continue to push prices up a little, but areas where I live that depend on the high price of oil to generate jobs are much riskier. 

In the United States, Gary, Indiana, Indianapolis, and Detroit offered displaced homes for cheap or by giving them away for US$1 or free.

What does the future hold, a bunch of properties going cheap when the owners can't fill the units and go belly-up?    

@Ben Braddock, Durham is a great place to start off, especially the east side as things are still cheap there so there's a great potential for large profit margins.  

That makes two of us that are interested in these small units.  400 sq.ft. in downtown San Jose rents for $1,400/month so $800 is cheap.