I know I could aim to get more out of the deal but it's the experience i'm willing to sacrifice money for, and it's a friend who's not hurting to sell either.

I will say the vacancy rate @ 5% should probably be measured closer to 10%, good luck to you. 

May use this to put a measured amount of offers on the table at once.

Cash out refi is what I'm aiming towards as well.

I started looking into real estate investing about a year ago, and these types of groups were instrumental to getting the knowledge I have acquired since then. http://www.meetup.com/Apartment-Investor-Mastery-AIM-Plano-TX/Here is a group that is meeting tomorrow, and they have another meeting Thursday that focuses on multi-family:http://www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Investing-Social-Network/

Decima is now signed on....He was fixxin houses when I was in diapers and his Investing in Fixxer Uppers was a book I pulled from a bookstore shelf back in 2003-2004 and it got me interested in real estate...Very excited to welcome him here...enjoying his new The Real Estate Fisherman a lot, a neat strategy book aimed at a "colony concept" and I will be doing a full review when I wrap up on my blog...Welcome aboard Jay...

Aim small miss small.Love the comment about taxes, that's helpful.

I have to reserve judgement until I know what price point you're aiming for and whether it's a flip or a rental.

We have also read quite a few different things regarding how many buyers you should aim to have.

You need an analyzed NOI and sales price to have a property specific cap rate since all it measures is what the NOI SOLD for, not what the seller hoped for based on their NOI and asking price (CRAP RATE).