Do your preliminary checks to see if the price is a good one and before you pull the trigger to make an offer, ask your agent friend to give you some comps for that address.If you don't have an agent friend yet, you need to get one.

Only recently have I pulled the trigger on making my dream of becoming a renowned investor materialize.

I have recently left the insurance industry to pursue my love of buying and selling real estate full time.I have been working to find a lender that is offering services to the seller financer for the MLO underwriting piece so the seller is in compliance with Dodd/ Frank.

It keeps everyone in compliance and ensures that everything is reported and recorded correctly both for you and you seller.

Additionally, I have now linked up with a great lender who will allow me to place this home as collateral against buying other rental properties, so while the cash would have been nice, it hasn't killed my ability to pull the trigger on investment homes.Just a few thoughts, but I hope this is somewhat helpful.

As part of our research we visited the city’s building and safety, flood control, code enforcement, planning, and the fire marshal to learn about their requirements and confirm compliance.

Some are given as the first step of eviction for non-compliance of rental terms.

Unfortunately for us, code compliance steps in and forces us to have disposers.

If the exterior paint truly has alligated to the point that it needs to be completely physically removed... that's a very involved process that requires a lot of hand labor and some specialized tools - ESPECIALLY if you're going to do the project in compliance with EPA regulations.This process is, in fact, so time-and-labor consuming that it can be a heckuva lot cheaper to simply remove the exterior siding and re-clad with new siding.Unless there's some specific reason (historic siding, for example) that makes you want to retain the old siding... alligated paint is just a bear of a job.And just to help the matter, here's a good image of alligated paint -http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/alligatoring

I've devoured the podcasts and read a couple dozen real estate books already.I feel like I've learned a ton but I'm still not quite ready to pull the trigger on my first deal so in the meantime I'd love to connect with some local investors and those of you across the country.Thank you all who actively contribute!