@Mike McNeil-Leier We're a rental property business & we tried to expand from our current market into the greater mwk area, the numbers didn't pencil out as well as our favorite market so we stopped our efforts to acquire property there.

Pizza deliveries and cabs would not come in the area because they were often robbed.If you have never had a rental with quality tenants, it's hard to imagine how much more money you make with better tenants, and how much less effort it is.

Self managing saves very little money at the expense of quite a bit of your time and efforts, IMO this tradeoff shouldn't justify boosting your pro-forma returns on paper.

The differentiation happens after: either they keep buying crappy deals, or they evolve and learn to make more money with less effort and fewer resources invested.

Putting 2k or more in to get another 50 bucks in rent isn’t worth the effort 

Put effort into the exterior—nothing turns off buyers faster than poor curb appeal.

There are many reasons for this.Yep, I'm 100% with Allan on this one - if you're just starting out, focus ALL of your time, energy & efforts on activities that directly tie on to bringing in cash-flow.

Tenants in the process of being evicted try to 'muddy the water' for the magistrates in an effort to delay the eviction process.

Maybe its a mom and pop owner and they bought the property for so cheap, they can get by on 30% vacancy and don't want to put in the effort to fill the property all the time. 

From your website and marketing efforts to finding great partners who can help you succeed, you will find your time getting eaten up by a lot of things that are not the core of your business.