Since I am not from the area it will be difficult to check out rent sign on a regular basis.

So yes, I do have a regular job as back up as I have restructured my business into doing mainly short sales and wholesale for cash flow with the intent of pushing those funds into rental income properties.

Lastly, look for the people that appear to be regulars.

The put with cash as collateral is one more such strategy with limited profits and the potential for a complete loss.So what you are doing is essentially taking small amounts of money regularly in the hope that bad things won't happen.

So if I had one who clogged the drains on a regular basis, I'd give them notice.

Black Swans in the pre-BP-ruling era will now be regular occurrences.

Finding a fully performing property especially at the 50% suggestion with multifamily is a non starter.A trophy property the owners will demand a premium.The typical buyer is a doctor,lawyer,etc. who wants a newer property in turn key condition to us as a tax shelter.They don't really need the income all that much.What I see most investors going after including myself is value add deals.Where you have a burnt out landlord or a property with deferred maintenance or both.Some people have more money than sense and do not make good managers.The value add deal is where you can create equity and cash flow the quickest.Many investors love apartment foreclosures from banks.There is no emotion like from a regular seller but also there isn't usually as many ways to structure a deal.So each avenue has it's pluses and minuses.If you talk to banks they are hoping the market gets better.If you talk to buyers many say we are still in a recession and will not pay the banks prices based on over inflated appraisals.So what you have is a stand still in the bid-ask gap pricing.Some product is moving but not the kind of volume to turn the market around yet.If you want start out with one house and build from there.I agree with everyone on the fees.The contractors will suck you dry.You have to know what work you want to do and not to do.I tell contractors I want investor pricing and that I am very cheap and want a deal.If they are looking for a retail deal don't even waste my time.Between plumbing,electrical,pest control,lawn maintenance,and on and on your cash flow can go out the window real fast.On my apartment building I have a cheap handyman mow the grass and do minor repairs.Grass company wanted a one year contract and 210 a month!

You have to keep in mind the exit values as the rehab costs are affected by the values of the homes.For instance, on one of my $1.2M exit values, I would consider $100k to be average to light in rehab.I just did a $50k rehab on a $550k exit and it was a regular, average rehab.Based on your averages, you would have estimated this as a tear down.In summary, don't rely on averages and dig into details concerning rehab estimates.

As for getting into financial planning, we're not getting into anything that isn't talked about on the site regularly already.

I imagine putting something like "must be passionate about RE investing" in the regular web dating sites would not get you much interest.