Blaming it on Realtors is like blaming the restaurant raising its prices on the waiter.

I did work at a restaurant for 3 years prior to investing in real estate though.

My ex wife is a Mexican American born here and raised by parents that immigrated here the legal way.

Are there quality restaurants, shops, and boutiques in the neighborhood with plenty of desirable employers within reasonable commuting distance?

Testing a tracking and tweaking is the key to success in this business.Put out here what you have closed in the last year and the volume of letters sent and frequency.As Sharon says I believe in highly targeted and filtered marketing.Volume is the number one mistake you can make.Either your letter sucks and you send to everyone and get no calls or your letter is good and you get bombarded.You then develop a rep from then on of not handling your business.It's kind of like a new restaurant opening and having tons of people come in from the advertising and the restaurant becomes a circus with bad food and service and long waits.Smart restaurants do a small "soft open" with little advertising to wait on customers and see what main issues arise.Then when the big advertising and grand opening hits they still have problems but many have been ironed out and systems have been put in place.

Expand into the waiter/waitress at the restaurant, drive thru window or wherever.

There are tons of bars and restaurants in walking distance, and we're planning on putting together some evening activities.

. :)I keep real estate talk to a minimum and turn it off.Sometimes we are having dinner at a restaurant there will be people talking about it so I can't help that.I do enjoy real estate but I like other things even MORE...... :)

Yes I can tell you the 50% rule rarely happens with properties.There are many,many buyers who do underestimate repairs and as long as they are solvent and look good banks will loan to them based on a high sales price.I would consider going higher than the 50% if the property had been recently renovated inside and out in a decent area and my hold time was only for a few years.The quads I bought at the height of the market went for 400,000 a piece back in 2008,2009.I didn't pay anywhere close to that but as the market comes back competition and CAP rate compression will hit driving sales prices up,up,up.Seasoned investors might not buy at those prices but plenty of other buyers will.I see people with 401k's retiring with 250,000.They plow it into buying a restaurant that when they work it full time might make the 40k a year.Little do they know how hard they will have to work and how small the returns will be.There is no way to hit the numbers you are hitting in the areas I would buy in.I have other exit strategies besides a long term hold and purely cash flow so motivation is different.

Also, I love walking around Westfield, so many quaint shops and good restaurants.