But the asking $295k is reasonable and I'd never offer the ask, more like $250k and see what reduction could be gotten.  

A property goes on the market for a certain price; offers can be accepted or countered within a pre-set limit; and price reductions will occur at pre-set limits and times.

They will say yes.Watch how fat your list grows.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------One of the more watched provisions of the fiscal cliff was the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which was set to expire on Dec. 31.The fiscal cliff deal extends it for another year, meaning homeowners who experience a debt reduction through mortgage principal forgiveness or a short sale are exempt from being taxed on the forgiven amount.

Usually that conversation starts with our real estate projects and I always mention how we make sure our private money lender is taken care of, and he is fat and happy at 10% return on his money and just wait for a response.  

Your living expenses is probably another $1500 conservatively w/ fat ($2500/mo needed total).

There is legally 15% of start up expenses that you get hit with up front that they don't have to show as a reduction of capital on your statement. (7% Broker Dealer fee, 3% referral commission, 1% organization fee, etc, etc. 

With sequestration, we're dropping S-8 property each time we get the 10%-15% reduction in HAP contract rent letter.As for their premium service, we had as much traffic through craigslist and organic traffic/leads through semi-concentrated SEO placement.

For the last 3 or so years, I've told myself that these prices are not going to last forever and its only going to be a matter of time before they go up so much that the numbers won't really make sense.The huge reduction in the number of foreclosures I believe is finally coming through in the pricing.

One other little caveat I heard was that there will be a major increase in the number of apartments coming online in the next year or so, and that those two things - the investor participation in the market and the expected reduction in demand - will negatively affect a buy and hold strategy.