I get what you guys are saying, but if you purchase a negative cashflow property and live in one unit, you are effectively just overpaying rent.

The effectiveness is suspect as you are actually going to be slower off the mark than the local wholesalers.Consider a local partner who can be your eyes and ears.

I could make further arguments about the disparity in value creation, real estate as an effective inflation hedge and the differences between a hard asset and a paper one or the differences in violitiliy and speculation.

Often, that type of buyer will pay a higher price than true investors, as long as you can show them a small savings off retail.The second involves positioning the property as a unique opportunity, and works best when the property has some special feature or location.Both of these are heavily dependent on aggressive and effective marketing.

Old fashioned legwork but it is effective.

The other redeption periods are still in effect, and purchasing one of those leins can be a way to acquire the property after the sale but before it becomes a REO.The new law, the "Colorado Foreclosure Protection Act" defines both preforeclosure consultants and equity purchasers.

If you live far from your rentals, then obviously it might be more cost effective to hire the maintenance.If the expenses run 40% to 50% and the deal makes sense you have already built in property management.

With the subprime meltdown, the tighter money policies taken effect, and the way the market has gone from high-appreciation to nearly no-appreciation for the time being, and interest-only loan won't help you much...

The best way to think about it is that you are trying to maximize CASH FLOW and mortgage paydown is just a nice side effect that causes you to cash flow more.One other point: the more money you pump into the property, the more money you risk losing if you ever default on the loan due to hardship expenses, high vacancy rates, or anything else that could come up to deplete your reserves.

In my experience, at least for long-term holdings, understanding and considering the long term effects of today's decisions will allow you to maximize your ROI over the life of your investment.NARPM offers a venue where (generally) multi-property PM's can share and learn from each other.