Of course, that would be ideal - to do thing you love with the person you love.

If you factor those into the amount that was paid off for them when the house was sold from them to the buyer (your realtor?)

Personally, when I deal with REOs, I don't put in ANY contingencies.

at that level of investment, your renters could buy cheaper than you could rent it to them after you factor in your profits and operating expenses....

More work, but better ROI.How do you factor in the transaction costs and the tax impact when you compute the IRR?

But here's my problem: If I drop that much to just try and get a sale, I'd prefer not to use a realtor because commission charges arent factored in to that cost; thus, my exposure is limited and its harder to find buyers.

It does not work for most of the investors I deal with, but if the property is being bought as a residence, its not a big deal.

However, as kenvest said, you would need to be able to accurately diagnose potential problems that you see, so therefore getting a professional inspection would be ideal.

sending Tony Soprano in would be ideal to say the least :-)

Ideally, you would have already been an ED (executive director) at an agency before you try to create one of your own.