Here's my view on it (I did the expenses a little differently): Rent (roomates and other side of duplex: $1650 Expenses- Vacancy (at 1 month vacant for each spot per year: $137.50 Maintenance (at about $3500 total per year): $292 PITI: $1320 ($164K loan with 3.5% down, 6%, 30 years) Advertising/cleaning for vacancies: $84 (out of $1000 annually) Monthly loss: $183.50 But wait!

Rich and others, I would also like to point out that I used some borrowed funds for this project, so my return is much higher than 25% (more like 40%), and it was done, acquisition to sold, in under 3 months, which is an annualized return of well over 150%!

Nick, if you want to read about investing and business in general, I would recommend reading Warren Buffett's annual letters to shareholders.

The way I understand it, a regular LLC in Illinois: $500 setup Articles of Organization, $250 annual fee, all properties within LLC are vulnerable to the others.

Needs 20k in rehab Semi annual taxes $1064 Identical buildings are listed between 100k and 120k on the same street.

This is what I like and it should yield you in excess of 50% annualized over time for up to a few million dollars in capital.

For instance, a tax lien investment may yield 25% annually, but require 10 hours of research and produce only $25.

Here are the financial figures for it: Asking price: 54K mortgage payment: 355 monthly rent would be 650 annual taxes: 385, ins 400 I'm thinking of just renting it out.

In southern California, typical hard/private money terms will result in roughly a 17%-20% annual return, depending upon how fast you get paid back.

I will agree that missing the matching is free money and it would be a shame to miss it; however, a good note investor could earn 10%+ annually.