The biggest mistake I see made is focusing on PRICE.Price is important but it what you get for the price in what area that is KEY.What I have heard from Detroit is they have very high property taxes there.I have heard in the thousands and thousands for one of those cheap 10k houses.You find this as well in Atlanta with very high taxes and assessments and appeal backlogs that go for miles.I would save your money and leverage yourself into larger deals in better areas.For instance if you have 50k to play with buy a 10 unit in a better area.In my area in war zone Atlanta you can find 10k houses listed by the hundreds for sale in crap areas.What smart investors do is look at outlining areas instead where you might see 5 properties for great buys that you have to act fast.When the market comes back the nicer areas will recover first usually.If you have an old junky house on land you have a development play.In Atlanta these junk houses might sit on small parcel .18 to 1/4 acre and the topo is hilly.I can land a house for decent rent and get 1 acre or more in the burbs.More exit strategies,less crime,less taxes,etc.I might offer really cheap for one of those war zone properties and then try to wholesale it with a full disclaimer and let someone else take the risk.

The "due on sale clause" is basically "a protection" for lenders.Back in, I think, in the '80s, mortgage interest rates "sky-rocketed" and what was happening, smart people were selling existing mortgages with lower rates.So for example a 30 year mortgage @ 5% relates to a $1,342.05 monthly payment.So if interest rates jumped-up to, let's say 12% in the 1980s, a new $250,000 30 year mortgage @12% would have a monthly payment of $2,571.53.Taking this fictitious example one can see just how powerful it would be in the '80s to sell a house right along with an existing 5% mortgage on it,vs.Selling the same house without an existing mortgage.

If you read up on everything, you will have almost as much book smarts (maybe more) than a property manager you would hire, you will only be lacking in experience, and hopefully the experiences of others on BP can fill that in some for you.2.

We were a fairly mature group, we had small get togethers with friends, and a couple big parties, we took care of the place for the most part because we knew we would be taken to the cleaners by the property management company if we didn't, and because we are smart and don't destroy other peoples property.

A smart tenant-buyer, or just a tenant-buyer, who is "lawyered-up" with a good real estate attorney, who is past-due on rent, can take most of the agreements listed above, into an "eviction courtroom" and demonstrate to the court, that "valuable consideration" was paid by the tenant-buyer (i.e., via an option to purchase fee, down payment, etc.)...Thus expressing to an eviction judge that a transaction took place, that expressed & displayed a tenant's "equitable interest" in the said property.

Any smart investor will want to minimize risk by doing due diligence to ensure they are making a smart decision, and the potential return outweighs the risk they are taking.

Ruining your own reputation is not very smart business practice.

Get smart, rehab smart, not cheap.

I say, if your on the fence about it, do it but do it smart.

They told me to divert the air flow.I bought another dryer vent tube and one of those door flap devices (don't know what they are called) and connected it to the vent hole outside the house, so that it blows the exhaust three feet further from the AC condensor.