Expenses reflected in my original post include these items, plus common area utilities, taxes and insurance.

I was wondering what you guys thought about this idea.Also, since he is going to be living with them, is he allowed to discriminate based on age or gender and find someone he might have more in common with?

This is a common fault of newbies and IMO it's one of the reasons for the high failure rate.

That would be extremely helpful.

Not bad and clearly the best ROI.If the value of the property is falling then I would expect the ROI is going to be very poor unless the NOI and cash flow after debt service is very good.I know the statements above are extremes or rather broad in nature.

Is this a common situation?

Short sales are not new if you understand banking but they were not all that common for individual RE investors.

He then introduced me to another investor from which I learned a great deal ( which seems like common sense now) and I was off to the races.

That commonly happens when their private septic system fails as they will have to pay a fair amount to repair the system.

And actually, if you buy title insurance through that attorney, the legal guidance is extremely cheap.You know, you would be amazed at how far you'll get if you just pick up the phone and ask an agent to show you a few properties.