Your other option is to hire a property manager who will do those tasks for you while you collect a check (and manage the property manager).

There are other good cities too, but in general I go for the markets/cities that have steady population growth, multiple industries, in general growing markets.

I am also open to any other advice/tools that can be used to evaluate and possibly predict the swings of the RE market(s).Also, if anyone knows of any specific areas poised for high growth (with supporting data) within the next few years please let me know.Thanks!

Scott said, he talks a lot about cycles and demographic/job growth areas for goes for high probability of appreciation looking nationally.  

Just curious, once closing on a property what are some important steps or tasks that should be completed asap?

If you buy solid houses in areas that have job and population growth, you should do well.Good Luck,Robert

Have a solid full business plan of what you are planning on doing, what resources will be needed, who are the parties involved (attorney, accountant, other investors), what is the business strategy (wholesaling, flipping, buy and hold), what is the market (upper income, working class), economic factors (is it a raising area or declining area of job growth, population size, businesses moving in or out).So many times I talk to new investors who have looked at one or two houses and want to borrow $100k from someone because it looks like a good deal.

I only have a few pages left.I did manage to complete a few other tasks this week, one of which was to attend a number of open houses earlier today.

Ok, so getting back on topic, since my original post over 3 years ago, I had since went to a seminar put on by these guys and paid the few hundred bucks to see what it was all about.In a nut shell, they are taking what is a simple idea, but a complex transaction filled with risk (that you need to know how to manage) and licensing requirements, packaging it up as an easy, anyone can do it, and selling it off for large profits.The facts are this, it is NOT easy for anyone to do this without violating a number of laws and regulations, it is not easy to manage the risk, and building the relationships they speak of is also not a simple or easy task.

Hi All,Sorry for asking such  a newbie question that probably has already been addressed here but I can't find it. so here I go.In a bathroom remodel project what task  do you think can be performed by a trained handyman vs Professional?