Be resolute.Depending on the neighborhood, purchase price, ARV, exit strategy and a few other factors, these can certainly be weighted.I personally think the 2% rule is very useful -- as is Maximum Allowable Offer.

List is $260,000 comps are between $425-450.Great School District, neighborhood and location.High taxes, $8500They took everything they could when they left.

This is a great trend to see as it creates renewed interest in more difficult neighborhoods and revives communities.Is this happening in other areas across the country?

Hi Ben, I've lived in Toledo all my life...can't say it's anything unusual that makes jobs and renters, we have strong manufacturing with obvious ties to the automotive industry (Dana corp- parts supplier, Jeep- manufacturer, Owens Corning- insulation/bldg materials, Anderson's- agriculture/fertilizer, First Solar) Like any area we have some $250k and up neighborhoods with little crime and great schools...and some seedier areas where you will read about gang shootings about once a week.

“They’re neighborhoods where we will help local efforts to meet one National goal: that a child’s course in life should be not by the ZIP code she’s born in, but by the strength of her work ethic and the scope of her dreams,” the President said.The cities selected for the first zones are Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Antonio, while the Kentucky zone covers a multicounty region in the southeastern Highlands area.

Anyways, this is how this rehabber got into the $250k-300k neighborhood with nothing down.

I say "I just need to get some quick information about the house right now and then I will take a look at the information and the neighborhood online, and if it looks like we can help I'll come take a look at the house, so how many bedrooms do you have?...

There are lots of markets in the Cleveland area where duplexes are just flat-out bad deals while the 10-unit next door is a screaming deal, and there are neighborhoods where the opposite is true.

We have duplexes in C/B neighborhoods that sell for $70,000 with monthly rents of $1400.

By the end of the year we will have an attractive, fully remodeled 5-plex in a decent area close to the University, shops, hospital, etc..Preliminary calculating the commercial value as a function of the NOI and assuming a 10 cap we would seem to have gained a decent amount of equity - if we do not occupy the 2BR.