Liz has extensive knowledge in financing, appraising, construction, marketing as well as her greatest attribute is creating systems to maximize time, quality and monetary constraints to ensure efficiencies on all levels.

I work in Excel for a living, and am extremely comfortable with large sets of data - but I can't stress enough how poor this data quality is.I asked my contact at the assessor, and he said most of their clients are mortgage companies who have the resources to "translate" these data files into something more useable.

I grew up in the Bay Area and Richmond is probably going to present somewhat of a challenge for you to get quality tenants.

Due to the age of some rentals, other items to consider is concrete driveways / walkways, septic and sewer (if property is on well/septic), landscaping, entry doors / screen doors (my tenants like to ding them up moving stuff in/out, so replacement is about every 5 years or so.

Figure 3: Bad Quality Pictures.

Screen Shots would helpAlso what script do you use when the owner calls you back?

The investors we support typically are buying 3/2 or 2/2 block homes with no pool (for liability reasons).These are HUD houses, and usually only need a light to medium rehab.In the area you described, the rental market is strong, just make sure you have a good screening process.

@Or Yeger  quality first you will pay differently for in different markets..what your looking for is Yield the Yeilds will be dictate what you pay for the note.Many quality performing notes that are say 7 to 10% will be sold at Par.In my ever it to be humble opinion buying a note that was purchased as a NPN and is no performing is very risky.. the chance that you will be right back into NPN status is pretty great probably 50% chance or better.I like performing notes with good solid borrowers not notes were the borrower has already defaulted as they now know how its done.. plus ower occ notes have all sorts of rules and regs you have to follow .

I'm always wary of 4 places due to quality of tenants and the hassles being their landlord

Yes, I screwed up and didn't screen.