This bulk REO-to-Rent buying started with large banks, and is now being extended to the GSE's (Fan/Fred/HUD)http://www.housingwire.com/node/32233http://www.gipartners.com/news/waypoint-real-estate-group-and-gi-partners-establish-partnership-to-build-single-family-rental-

Honeywell makes the best thermostats in my opinion and I believe somewhere around their 5000 series and up that feature is availible, but I like where your mind is at and it sounds like a viable option to me if you don't want to spend the money on the heat pump.

In fact, you could go new, with an extended warranty on the washing machine to hedge your bet.

They'll pull their rigs to nice area and spend month or two.

My non-professional understanding of basis:Your basis is the purchase price, including acquisition costs (except any that may be deductible as expenses in the current year) plus the amount you spend on the property to put it into rent ready condition.

So why spend your money on this?

Yup, lots of stuff...What about capital costs (depending on the area and property, you'll likely spend at least $20,000 every 20 years to replace roofs, HVAC units, water heaters, etc)?

Do you want to spend the $$$$ on an evicition, vacancy, lost rent, debt service, and repairs to make a point and risk getting a trashed unit returned to you?

On that basis alone I would be extremely skeptical.Are you willing to get on a plane and spend some time in this area?

Thank you in advance for reading.Had our eye on a Short sale property for about a month but asking price was over what we wanted to spend on something that we knew would require work.