To my surprise they were very friendly and never brought up the lease situation.

I'll share the results in a blog, and the results may surprise you!

At the same time, a 50% LTV loan is pretty safe, as you'll still have plenty of equity in the deal, and it sounds like you'll still have cash on hand to cover any surprises.

I spent 20+ years with heavy travel in my professional life, then in my mid-40s we had a surprise family - which is being a wonderful experience :) A move into real-estate investing has allowed me to spend more time at home with my son - and to develop a software application aimed at building monitoring/management for landlords and their tenants.

I'm not surprised.

Get involved, ask questions, and interact...you might be surprised how much more you will learn that way.

One thing they're leaving out is a simple law of economics - supply and demand.The fact is that there are new households forming every year.There have been no new houses built in the last 6 years and the pace of building today is at near-historical lows - and definitely not enough to keep up with the number of households being created that need homes.And then add to that the fact that there are a lot of people still under water on their mortgages that can't sell and it should come as no surprise that there currently is less supply than there is demand right now.

Tim If you take literally everything that politicians say you have to brace yourself for surprises and outlandish activities, such as putting bread on your children, etc.

With the sheer stupidity that tenants exhibit, I'm surprised that there's a rental left standing anywhere in the U.S.!

What has surprised you the most that you have ended up not liking to do as as a property manager?