If rents and values are not moving up your profit will diminish each year.3. 

@Carl Carlson How often do you perform some sort of inspection on the house, considering the diminished likelihood of these tenants actually reporting issues (such as running toilets) as you mentioned? 

; therefore allow me to scribe you this simple message about how I want to buy your property' is diminished, IMO. 

Everything he claimed is predicated on the boomer generation's buying power diminishing as they age/retire/check out/etc.  

I would tell them very nicely to think of their family and embrace reality by preparing them to move somewhere else.You need to explain to them their ability to negotiate a good sale is diminishing by the day every day it gets closer to the foreclosure auction and if they don't sell at least 5 days before that date they won't get a penny,let alone a few thousand cash to pay for moving expenses and a security deposit on a new rental apt.They are living in the delusion they can still get out of the mess and go on as normal.You need to make them understand you are their best hope to get back to a normal life some place else and that you have a business to run and make a profit.

That being said, once you narrow down the type of investment that suits you, your finances, and your risk tolerance, the amount of information that applies to you will be greatly diminished, which makes this place a teensy bit less overwhelming.I see that you are looking at MI (great outfit) so you must be interested in exploring turnkey.

Chuck,If I am reading your example correctly then what is happening is Bob's capital account is not diminished unless or until he decides to redeem.  

So if you are Owner Occing it you are ok, and will get the Flood insurance subsidy, but if you move on, keep it,  and need flood insurance you will have to pay actual risk, about 4+ times the subsidized rate, and the diminished value, as well as difficult resale, if your all in cash, and self insure the flood side, and just want cash flow, go for it, but think long term. 

If you like the idea of being super hands on, make sure that flies with the wife and kids ;) But in all seriousness, one of the major roadblocks new investors hit is that their enthusiasm takes them out of their reality and they end up getting stuck in investments that either don't return the way they want because they didn't do enough due diligence or they are too much of a headache and negatively impact the work/life balance.Once you have a handle on what options are available to you and you and the wife have decided what will work for you right now, the amount of information you need to absorb will be greatly diminished, as will your chances of being paralyzed by info overload ;) And remember, there's no reason you can't begin your investing journey with one strategy and then change tacks later once you have the financial flexibility to stretch your wings a bit.

If the voucher covers a substantial portion of the rent, then the tenant's portion could be so little that using a multiplier would result in such a low income requirement that the likelihood of a tenant being able to successfully meet all of their financial obligations diminishes.