It's always a gamble to me and I would definitely negotiate with the seller and get the price way down.

With today's LOW interest rate, gambling with ARMs seems nuts to me.Do your numbers make sense at all (i.e. 2% rule) ?

Additionally, if you are late on just one card, the rest of the credit card issuers could raise your rates under something called "universal default" (late on one is late on all).Too big a gamble, in my opinion, especially if the property you purchase does not generate income right away.

An established foundation company should use a 3rd party engineer and if so you need to check them out as well.

You're overseas, they could use the cash, and based on their track record, your risk is lower than gambling on gold ect...

So just establish a rate of return you want, and go from there, don't pay attention to how much of the price you get in rent.

If you buy properties based on that evaluation, you will fail as a landlord.Like gambling in a casino, this is a "long term" number.

You obviously have been involved in the real estate business before, so you know the process.As for your credit, the best thing would probably be for you to go to a credit counselor and figure out how best to proceed in re-establishing credit.

Those homes had only new kitchen and paint.I will try to put this home for sale for $119k which is a gamble..I thought about rent it for $900 but did not like the people that showed up because they looked like ghetto.

Most REI have no clue how to establish my criteria for bidding don't kid yourself or live in a dream world!