Now several years into this business I am helping banks liquidate the hundreds of forclosures they are faced with,and in the process building my own net worth and net worth of investors I work with.This is not a business for someone who does not want to work...and work very hard.

The cash flows can be very slim when starting out, not to mention, one person always feels like they do all the work and they begin to get irritated.

Tenant says she is pregnant and hence cannot work and pay, but says will vacate by end of month, can i trust her?

There is no short cut, there is nothing new in RE except more regulations, learn the rules and stay out of trouble. :)

Just like anything worth while it takes time, patience, hard work and hands on learning to figure out.

We have found this works well for us as they realize we did extensive cosmetic work and have put a lot of improvements into the property.

Patience, hard work and civic participation is what it takes.

The difficult part for many new investors is the learning curve and amount of work involved to close the deals...identifying motivation, structuring deals, following up, inspecting the property, etc.The good news is when the learning curve shrinks, say after 200 calls, all you need is hard work, and as every investor knows hard work can be outsourced!

Keep up the great work and let know about your next deal.

Step one would be to call Building and Safety (usually who posts those signs) and see why they put the sign up...if it sounds minor you could move forward and see about putting the home under contract.Either way, as long as the numbers work and the problem is repairable...taking total repair costs into account you should be able to make the deal work.