Thank you for your concern.

I have met once an enterprising young Japanese guy who has amassed a sizable fortune in rental apartment buildings, but certainly he was not the average and he worked extremely hard to get the financing while credit was loose.One source of cheaper houses are the government auctions.

I was claiming, and stand by the claim, that it would be an extremely rare rental where that was a profit on a monthly basis.Mike is correct that in the past when someone has said "my 'expenses' are lower than 50% of the scheduled rent", the claim has not stood up to scrutiny.

My main concern is getting ripped off by rehabbers.

I would be extremely careful about the IE market.

A good mentor will be concerned about your development as a real estate investor and will take the steps necessary to ensure that you are well-versed in multiple investing strategies.

I do not have enough cash on hand to buy free and clear and I am very concerned about the finance world.Plus, as you indicate, the 'deals' just are not quite right.

*Did I tell him before he had the appraisal done that I was concerned the prices had dropped enough that we would not be able to get the money we needed?

But honestly, do you think Florida's main concern right now is people actually PAYING on their defaulting loans???

I understand your concern about paying points but just as an example let's say you have a 700k loan amortized for 30 years at @ 9%.