I should have been more clear - This particular tenant gave a holding fee and the application fee on Sunday and then canceled the check first thing Monday morning.

I think you have try to a bunch of things to see what works best for your particular business.

We've found a couple of properties to our liking so far, and using the analysis tool provided by BP, they both seem to be good deals. 2 in particular stand out, both 6 units, one we can easily afford with the 20 % down payment, and the other one, which we can do the 20%...not so easily.

Know, don't guess, current interest rates (particularly for someone with their bruised credit), points and closing costs.

Does anyone have advice, or experience, or guidance in this particular issue?

Anyways - that particular home wasn't in my area - It was out in Decatur somewhere.

I lack the serious knowledge it would take to start my own, but would like to network with other locals and see whats available in my particular area.

If you're feeling particularly dastardly you might have written a prepayment penalty into the note, but if I did that I would probably only make it for the first year or perhaps two.

I understand that Class A is the best, but how do you determine how a property fits into a particular class?

That being the case, I'm going to start by wholesaling.I've checked out the local REIAs and will attend a few before I join (I've heard horror stories about some, so I want to make sure they're clubs that fit my needs) and network as much as possible, build up a buyers' list while I'm looking for deals - I've probably looked at 65 houses and can pretty much tell you what homes go for in a particular area when I hear or see the address.Once I move, I can look at buying properties to rehab and/or hold.