You could still make money on a deal, but you won't make as much as if you've seen 25 homes and know what all values and repair looks like in the market.Also, one more thing I think that is a big failure mechanism for new investors is ego.

The two major pieces of any permanent policy, the savings mechanism and the mortality costs, were simply broken out and explicitly shown.

Hey, I think you're spot on as long as you're buying the property using the 50% rule, since you never know when circumstances might change, or your empire grows to the point where you NEED property management.I've found that the following warrant a 55% rule:* older pre-1950 houses* mechanicals and deprciating structures more than 50% through their useful life* low rents (less than $500/mth around here) since fixed costs will be higher as a % of rent* multis where landlord pays water/sewer, common area costs* turnover higher than nat'l avg of once every two years, driving up cleaning and make-ready expenses, and extra marketing/leasing time, even if it is your own time at this point.Happy Thanksgiving.

You can do a dealership or private seller (personally I like private seller, dealerships are just as shady as anyone else and private is cheaper). if its private meet the seller at your favorite mechanic and have an inspection done immediately, then take it for a test drive and based on what the mechanic found, negotiate the price.

The beauty of this property is that the mechanicals are no more sophisticated than the little turnie things that open the louvered windows. 

Not just one guy, staff is about 15, pre-soakers, interior guys, wipers, cashier, mechanic, manager.

We are approaching allowable IRA distribution age and have multiple rental properties all with taxable cap gains and no mortgagesWe have taken a second rental as primary residence now but why sell at this point in time at such depressed prices, so we will wait.Our question involves transferring some of our rentals to our self-managed IRAs and then using the tax-deferred nature of it to lower the tax implications.The mechanism would be, sell the property to our IRA's at the adjusted base, so no tax bill, unwind the property from the IRA, again no immediate tax bill, and then take our distributions form the IRA's and pay tax on that, which would be almost nothing due to our lower incomes at that point.Again, doing this at this point in the real estate valuation may not be the best, but once values begin to climb againWas just wondering if anyone has used this mechanism for unwinds, I believe it is perfectly legal, but will check with tax people.Cheers

@Rory Kinnear, are you lobbying for laws that force grocery stores and restaurants to give away food, or for mechanics to fix cars free, or for auto dealers to give away cars?

Purchase price: $55,000 Cash invested: $120,000 Sale price: $245,000 151 Mechanic Street was the second investment property we bought.

I know this sounds like a good idea when you look at the numbers and fail to consider the actual mechanics of how this could hurt you.