Lots of wealthy foreigners have speculatively driven NY real estate prices unnaturally high because they want to own a "piece of America"...investing in places like NY is more of a big game hunt for status rather than actually investing to generate passive income...And investing in houses is a fools game in general.

Has anyone had success utilizing bird dogs or wholesalers who specialize in cultivating mobile home park leads? 

Most newbies that have herd mentality are buying those now.If you are trying to get safer investments you might want to buy brand new builds in a subdivision in a nice area stage 0 to 1 of development.Example you look at 2 options:Option 1 - Buy a house for 75k (Class C) that after mortgage payment is supposed to generate 150 a month income or 1,800 a year.Down payment 15,000    Result: In a few years rent growth in lower income areas is more limited due to income earnings.

I've forgotten the reason my lawyers had advised against it but usually the people can't qualify for a loan and while I own my properties free and clear, carrying the mortgage doesn't achieve my goal of generating cash so I can reinvest or work on my other projects. 

@Nick Portillo It depends how you are finding your leads, and also the team you have in place out here.

Guys, I am a GC and I can tell you to stay away from any lead generation services.

Hi BP folks,A bit of a long lead-in here, so please hang in with me - I lost my job at the end of 2017 as my company downsized my entire department. 

We dont know what your cashflow is on the property, but based on the fact you have no reserves and no money to pay the mortgage, I assume it doesnt generate much.

Hi all, i just started out and have gotten some leads and one of the sellers seems really motivated (really nervous for the first call).

But there is already a metric for that, it's Cash on Cash (CoC).Another way to answer your question is:It does not make sense to calculate ROI by taking NOI and divide it by your down payment because NOI is generated by the whole property which is acquired with your down payment AND the loan from the bank.