In an earlier thread I was asked by another boarder to give my opinion on the new book "Making Hard Cash In A Soft Real Estate Market" by Wendy Patton and Justin Ryan.I just read the book and found it to be an easy read that had some good information.

Why is it in a market where you fight to overpay for property that real estate investors crawl out of the woodwork to start buying (like 2004 and 2005 where investors were content with sometimes less than 7% ROA) compared to the now very soft market when seemingly every investor I know or meet sits on their hands avoiding the best buyers market in years??

Some housing markets did not pause while other housing markets were soft during the recession.So, focus on local conditions mostly and figure out what drives your local market.If you are buying at 30% below the market it matters a lot less.

Looks kind of soft to me.

I agree with what someone mentioned about " the property is its own best comp" Once a property is purchased for "big discount" what do you think the next forclosure or REO may sell for (or below) if the market is soft?

Normally you have to provide all the furniture and other living items (towels, dishware, tools for the grill, etc).

I have all the figures , hard and soft cost, marketing research and builder.

BTW, that market looks very soft to me.It's a 3100 +/- square foot, 4/3/2, stucco with a tile roof.

So bottom line I'm very much in way over my head right now.I was looking at the short sale route and am talking with my realtor about such, problem is in the sub prime market everything is soft right now and there's TONS of foreclosures here in Houston to pick from.

I've tried in the past, and found that I'm generally too soft on tennants to be a good landlord, but I'd like to re-evaluate that situation and build a book of income property, so I'm hoping to glean some advice and possibly some practical solutions to address my landlord shortcommings before I jump back in to that segment of REI.I hope that gives a little more detail on me, and again I appreciate the warm welcome thus far.