hi frank. there is, of course, that old saying " it takes money to make money". thats true enough, but a revised edition should read " it helps to have money to make money". lots of people start out with little to nothing in their pockets. you can too, you just have to find the right deal, and believe me, thats gonna be hard. borrowing money is a decent start, but remember, you are also increasing your debt load. you have to do it while also increasing your net worth, or at least, without decreasing your net worth. you will have to find a property that is worth at least what you are paying for it now. there are deals out there for nothing down, but most of them are shams. properties that no one wants also have a reason no one wants them. my brother, and investor in western michigan, has actually bought houses at tax sale auctions for as little as $20. there is a reason he got them that cheap....... no body else wants them. you have to ask yourself why. is the local government that hard to work with on the rehab???

If you lengthen the line in one spot, you will decrease the slope on the section you move unless you also lower the ENTIRE line downstream of where you did your work.

In my areas this decreases the price.

I think doing that also will decrease my debt-to-income ration and help me get a higher loan amount also.

If the rents have been below market for awhile to decrease turnover then it is highly likely it will be very expensive  ( more than your 1,000 a door ) cost to get rent ready again especially if you are asking closer to market rents.Now if the property is sitting on a nice chunk of land close to a high growth area of Cobb county then potentially you hold the headache for a few years until you can cash out the land for redevelopment at a higher value.

The tenants might still drive you crazy, but there will be fewer of them, decreasing your odds of picking a bad tenant.When my children were younger I had some sketchy tenants in one of my buildings from the previous owner.  

If so then your return on equity will be going down as you build equity in the property, in other words as you make payments of principle and interest you will build equity in the property therefore when you compare your annual return (what you get in rents-expenses) to the equity you have built that return (as a percentage) will decrease over time.

Thanks for the reply All Cash.As far as the insurance issue, there are stories in the paper everyday about how Florida is going to DECREASE the insurance rates starting June 1 of this year.

Many voter concerns, including decreasing excessive executive compensation for failing institutions, obtaining an equity position for taxpayers within these same companies and various oversight additions were added for political cover, but are negligible to the primary purpose of stabilizing the economy.

Holding all other things constant, if cash flow decreases, Cap rate decreases.