My strategy in Arizona has been adding bedrooms and renting by the room - currently getting 850-950/room in nice neighborhoods.

Hi Shak,If you have added value by doing upgrades to the property, I do know of programs that can do it with no seasoning.

My longest recent rehab was 2.25 months and added a half bathroom, took down 4 walks including load bearing, put up 3 walls, new plumbing, electrical, flooring, huge percentage of drywall, an eye brow porch, new kitchen with full layout change and new bathroom with full layout change.  

I do not see that home prices have dropped 2-3% and this is a lot of added savings in additional to a downpayment if so. 

they're often much more expensive than they appear because they have deferred maintenance that has been adding up over decades. 

I haven't added the 11th, the one that lost about 60% of value. 

I tried in my market which is the 2nd biggest to New York, so pricing for ads was really high and the return was not great.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $350,000

Cash invested: $40,000

The OG, my pride and joy. I went big early.

My figures are below.TaxDeed Winning Bid: $489.00 (My Bid May 2013)Property Clean-up: $450.00 (mowing, trash removal)Taxes & Insurance: $80.00 (2013 & 2014)Sale Advertising: $130.00 (Signage, Newspaper Ads, etc)Filings & Legal Fees: $245.00 (Deed, Lien Releases, Sales Agreement Docs)Total Costs: $1395 (approx)Sold for: $3250.00 (August 2014)That is better than the 25% I would have received if the property was redeemed during the redemption period.

Take the few extra hours it may take to originate the bank loan and divide it by the added finance charges and its normally more than most borrowers time is worth.