But there will be no guarantee one way or the other.I expect that somebody described as "the tenant from hell" will always be a bad tenant, and I expect that somebody who is a model tenant (especially through adversity of some sort) will behave well as a tenant.

You want to go through the address history and contact the landlords that are in that history, to see whether this applicant was somebody's former problem tenant. so you will definitely need an authorization or release of some sort that permits you to talk to any former landlord (and not just ones that the applicant lists for you).

There are also forums of unbiased residents who can help you sort thru all the neighborhoods.

I am lurking the forums to get familiar with the terminology and to sort of get an idea of typical flow of owning real estate.My first goal for this year based on podcast 55 is to start developing tighter relationships with my banks and lenders and i will next be reading Mortgage Ripoffs and Money Savers: - by Carolyn Warren.Sites like this really make me appreciate the time that we live in and i look forward to any advice and tips that are shared!

@Alison Michel I will be speaking at the FIBI meeting in manhattan Beach on the 8th of April if you can get to LA ( and who does not want to come to La) you will be able to meet with all sorts of like kind investors.

It was like a light went on and he started talking about first rights of refusals, option contracts and all other sorts of things.I don't think of myself as a mentor.

This will help you sort out with names make sure they are not fake!

My clients use hard money loans routinely, but most hard money lenders want the deal to have upside and for you to have some skin in the game so that their loan is safe.

After combing through a number of different posts on marketing strategies, I have come to some sort of a conclusion: yellow letters have a relative high response rate with high probability of unmotivated sellers, and postcards lead to low response rate with more motivated sellers.This being the case, I have decided that I would like to go the postcard route.

My advice to him stands and the only other thing I might do would be to suggest to the tenants that they open an escrow account to take care of this; it's my suspicion that they will not do it, but at least he can make the attempt in good faith.Also, I'm curious about what sort of a "potentially giant lawsuit" he may be open to?