Throw unit occupancy in there for budget and understanding purposes which also will lead to indications of the stability of the purchase price and ownership type ratios.Ethan points out some less controllable events.

My husband grew up in Edmonton so these leads might come in handy for some family members still there.

You can't generate people to a particular area if they don't already exist there.Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

Comparable homes lead me to believe it's worth 2- 3 million in this market.

The benefits to adding "wow factor" to your flips is that you will have the nicest home on the market for that area which should generate a quick sale (quick sale = more money in your pocket due to less holding costs and future opportunity costs).Now you have to be careful not to ver rehab as you can overspend and not get it back.

Jon -While I agree that for most people in most situations, a house is *NOT* an investment, I also think that that your analysis above for the value of a low-interest loan is actually a great argument for why more people *SHOULD* be buying homes and taking out a loan.While not everyone will be able to take the money and generate a significant enough return that the result will be substantially beneficial, there are a lot of people (like most of us here on BP) that have the right mentality to make that achievable.Again, for the general public that has little expertise, interest or experience with investing, I completely agree with you.

Copper coated lead is my metal of choice.

Acquiring real estate this way is a numbers game, but if you can get thousands (or even tens of thousands) of marketing pieces to potentially motivated sellers, you'll get some great leads that turn into big bucks;2.

I disagree about the charging the upfront fee makes a serious buyer.I can't tell you how many scammers I have seen in the commercial lending arena.I can say one problem lenders face is they get a package submitted to them and then give an LOI.Then in due diligence the buyer finds out the income levels and returns were not as stated.Now the lender wants a bigger payment down from the buyer or the buyer has to get the seller to reduce to the actual proven numbers.The deal falls out and the lender made nothing.The way to solve this is submit a detailed and verified package upfront.This way you know the numbers you are sending have been verified.Lenders site confidentiality etc. when doing loans so you can't verify other properties they have closed.If lenders state money has to be in escrow or a deposit have YOUR attorney hold in an account the lender does not have access to or authorization to.This way the money can be shown to be there and earmarked for the purposes of the loan.I am telling you these scammers will do anything to separate you from your money.I know some deals I wasn't involved in where the people chased the lender for 6 months to get back 500k.Do not let lenders PUFF fees.If they say they have to pay for appraisal then tell them you will pay the appraiser directly.If you are a legit lender and you make money when you close a loan you should have no problem with this.If however you are a fee generator mill and you hardly close anything or a point taker with upfront fees I can't tell clients to work with you.Some point takers take money to submit apps knowing the lender will not close or that it's a sham.They usually charge a small amount upfront to entice the victim.Usually 500 to a few thousand.

It could simply be that one of the short sale buyers had enough lead time to get the money together.On the other hand, it's annoying to think that someone gets to the front of the line by being dishonest, and every body involved looks the other way.