Houston may require a permit for this, but AFAIK all repair guys are licensed by the state and have to pay into a "risk" pool to cover boo-boos if they go out of business.

Here is a link on the subject from the Wall Street Journal Real Estate section.http://www.realestatejournal.com/buysell/tactics/20070321-kim.htmlAlso check my my past posts on the subject.I am also looking to get into student rentals.

Obviuosly the higher the better but I didn't know if a certain amount of positive cash flow should be met to cover repairs, etc.

I wish I had a cape covered goverment official [paste picture here] wearing their underwear on the outside of their pants (not too different from many in the house of representatives) coming out to announce the 300b dollar bailOUT.

I’ve seen it among my contacts, and there are several books and plenty of research on the subject.

That assumes that $48 will cover the utilities, which unless that's just water, I seriously doubt.

In this case, you will need to CAREFULLY structure the lease-option contract and be sure that you cover yourself.Good Luck,Mike

If I ttake the property subject-to exciting finance, will it hurt the seller chance of getting a new loan for a new house?

We cover the entire gambit of programs including short sale and filing BK's.

I was just looking at a property for 36k and was approved and had an approval letter in 2 hours.Many small local banks will give you loans on lower value properties if you can show that you personally can cover the mortgage and if the property cash flows that makes it a lot easier as well.Just try a small local bank...