The housing bubble burst scared many out of the market and unfortunately many folks bought personal residences they couldn't afford and they lost them when interest rates went up, and the recession hit.

If anything, it scared me out of jumping in.

(This include rehab costs, and holding costs which include property taxes, insurance, and utilities.)We held on to the property far longer than expected before listing it due to some health issues with my mother that I was taking care of.

I see this as a situation that has to be dealt with on a regular basis but at the same time must scare many buyers away.

Just wanting to hear what part time investors do for their 9-5 and how they apply that to REI.I'll start:I'm an actuary with a large health insurer (please, no comments on how health insurers are the devil).

Situation - We own condo (we paid 50k cash 2 years ago and have rented)MIL is moving into the condo.Mother in Law has about 60k in cash from sale of her house and 30k 401k, and she gets 2k per month SS.Her health is realtively poor.We are open to helping her financially some, but also want to protect her as she is not finacially super wise (She was recently ready to give a hospital a large amount of money because they said the insurance hadn't paid yet)My wife is her only heir.Option # 1 - Rent to her.. fair market is about 600 month.Pros - Simpler, no Title Insurance, She has plenty of cash left to live on, Option # 2 - Sell to her for about 65k.

What I had in mind was to,1. scare the folks into paying me like they pay the local bank. or.2.

State in detail that they are late with their October/sep whatever rent in full while monthly rent was paid, as the utility bills are outstanding for x dollars and are processed first and that is tenant responsibility per section x of the lease contract. tape it to the front door in an envelope. contact attorney to get ready to file eviction case to proceed on day-5 if tenants don't respond. it's usually a good scare to get them to respond and comply, but sometimes only evictions work.

Were you guys a little scared about it when you got your first one?

Hopefully it will get a clean bill of health during that time and won't need further treatment.The only good thing is this is in a stand alone unit.