Screen your tenants properly, and don't give in to temptation. keep them on a fair, but short, leash, and make sure BOTH parties abide by the agreement.

Too pricey to use as a rental, unless rents are really, really high in that area.Loan balance is too high for a sub 2.Owner's not behind, so bank's not going to be interested in a short sale.Does the owner have cash to bring to closing?

As a treacher, here is the problem/question: in order to coach you properly I have to make sure that you have all of the missing pieces filled in and also that you hae interpreted the information you found correctly.

It is not a balanced view.The idea of having significant debt on the property does make it less obvious that the owner has equity or other assets.

There are far more good tenants than bad, it's up to you to attract the best prospects and screen them properly.

For instance, is it a bad idea to buy sub-to when there is a high loan balance and little equity?

If you give the buyer a new mortgage at a higher balance and interest rate, and therefore higher payment, than the one you're paying, you're doing a wrap.Biggest downside is that it triggers the due-on-sale clause in your mortgage, which may, but probably won't, result in your lender calling it due.

My price when I actually exercise my option will be the balance remaining as of that time on the amortization table.

In the rental business, they fail for two reasons: lack of cash flow (mainly because they don't understand operating expenses) and the inability to properly deal with tenants.

I want to start leaving letters at abandoned or empty homes in an attempt to reach home owners and I was wondering if anybody that had applied this strategy had an example letter of this sort..I was thinking to just write to call me in case they are willing to sell, but then again, without a properly written letter, this might backfire as people might not understand my intend.. so before I write one of my own, I was hoping to hear some suggestions , so please share if you know anything about this topic.