My neighbour sold his house a week before the new mortgage rules went into effect for 200K over asking and literally a hundred people went through it, and last week my friend put his house on the market (nice house, great area) and only one party made an off at asking price...telling perhaps, but would be interested to hear what realtors are noticing.

If you still want to manage the property yourself, the first 3 are all good, but may not be cost effective depending on how many units you're looking to purchase.

While there are free tools like Craigslist that can be effective for marketing a property, other avenues like newspapers, real estate websites or property management companies will come at a cost.

Sharing the data below and appreciate any advice on how you would forecast vacancy.For reference: I plan to acquire for cash flow and maintain as needed; no active development.Q3'16 Metro-Detroit Data; source: CBRESub-Market data specific to the building in question (classes A,B,C); source: listing broker(shows 8% vacancy)Historic Vacancy & Forecast specific to the building's submarket; source: listing brokerI requested historic data dating back to 2005 to observe how vacancy was effected by the last recession, but historic data was only available to 2012.

well if he seller finances it to you, then he won't be getting a large sum that he'd use towards another property, so that in effect would also be one way for him to avoid having to pay capital gains on proceeds or a payout.  

Even though I have a ton of experience with airbnb I would not do it unless I can hire a person to deal with little nuances that is cost effective or it was next door so that I can deal with it easier.

As to real estate, immigration crack downs might effect that roofer you have, individual health care policies might drive up the cost of doing business for small contractors if they will still be required to be covered, seems they want to get rid of Obama Care but still want everyone covered.....we will see.

Then it would effect her ability to find a new place with a housing  blemish.Cash for keys and then change the locks.

Would it be more cost effective for you to rent them both out and live in a small rental until you get on your feet?  

Soooo, what I'm trying to say is that a refinanced mortgage doesn't have as much potentially negative effect on your score, as long as you make the pre-determined payments, while a credit line can really negatively effect you, if you use it to buy other real estate and use too much of it and now your score is too low and you can't refinance that property into a mortgage.