I expect to be viewing homes in borderline 'rough' neighborhoods where properties are around 150K.

The day I was going to sign the purchase and sale agreement I decided to have a realtor check comps for the street, neighborhood.

Our non profit organization provides preforeclosure sale, and preforeclosure short sale training & support to real estate agencies' brokers and brokers' agents.

Questions:Asking price 177,500 in a neighborhood where many houses go for more, but many have a pool, this does not. 4 small Bedrooms, (not a major problem) and the neighborhood is generally well kept.

should i look at a neighborhood and then try to find s house?

We have had a few investors invest in our neighborhoods at the advice of an unscrupulous realtor who also was to be the property manager.

I know the term safe is a relatively subjective term when it comes to real estate but I am talking more along the line of what neighborhood/area can one stand to make a fairly significant gain with a 15-25K cosmetic rehab/update?

Maybe you should explore other ravenues.Also - I was looking at lots of multifams as well and found almost nothing would cash flow, until I started looking at low end neighborhoods.

As a volunteer for many different non-profit organizations it is important for me to give back.

I understand your frustration but have you looked to see on average how long it takes to sell a house in your neighborhood...the other possibility is that the price is too high...those are the first two things I would look at.