To add to what Jon said, you might be able to bet on LUCK to keep your expenses down if you're only going to own one duplex.

I bet that you could get your rate fixed if you were really persistent.

It is down a lot this year, but I would bet sales will drastically rise as people are laid off, money gets tighter, and good ole Tomato Soup makes a strong comeback!

That is a much safer course of action for the buyer as well as the financier.

I bet if you ask a large subset of this forum what a typical operating expense is they will respond with 50%.

Your best bet is to have an engineer look at it.

I'd say that Steve's method is probably a better bet, unless the apartment building is garden style where you've got access to all the doors.

Interesting mess....I bet you get it figured out!

even when they leave, i bet they'll tell their friends about your place.i once knew a big apartment complex that would throw a summer bbq for all the tenants.

I'm not familiar with Cali but if the s/l was 4 years for contracts and unsecued notes I'd put my money betting on 4 years.I'd weigh the option of proceeding regardless of the s/l as the borrower would need to bring that as a defense, I'd bet they don't if no payment was ever made.Another issue, if a payment was never made it sounds like mortgage fraud that is another category getting to criminal charges, the s/l will be longer, 7, 10, 12 years, not sure, it depends too if the original was an insured lending institution or a private individual.It also depends if the note was generated from an installment sale or was made as a cash loan, purchase or refi.It will also depend on whois in the property and if the property has been sold over the past 16 years, we just had an example of a subject 2 deal going sour with subsequent sales and that can limit your security if the note holder fails to act in a timely manner.Frankly, I wouldn't fool with this one, 16 years old, foreclosure notice gievn and never followed through, that's pretty much allowing the note to go stale and abandoning the claim of the amounts owed.If the maker of the note is still in the property and you can contact them by phone or in person, you might be able to negoiate something holding the fraud claim over thier head, forgive some of it and modify it back to life, but they need to agree and you can certainly bluff your way along to a point.