@Mike:It is absolutely ridiculous that this is considered a political argument from my perspective too.

Okay are you doing this from a provider perspective ?

I'm a good example of this...I buy about 20 properties a year, but I don't like spending time searching for deals; from my perspective, the less time I can spend looking for deals, the more time I can spend on vacation and with my family.I buy most of my deals right off the MLS.

Thanks folks, that was a great discussion and i really appreciate the different perspectives.

It would be interesting to see if there is a report out there on the world wide web that put more clarity to factual data on consumers, speculation investors, builders, hedge funds/wall street and their perspective roles or percentages to the collapse/meltdown/downturn or whatever you wanna call it.

From a technical standpoint, your realtor is right - operating expenses from an accounting perspective are not 50%.

(I've never actually closed a deal like this, so others probably have a better perspective)

I do see a deal here... would need all of the numbers... but here are some thoughts.From your perspective why is the property so under managed?

And from the landlord's perspective it is so much easier to let someone who is living in the property do the work, instead having to hire someone and coordinate entry.

I look forward to your thoughts, and to hearing your perspective on the variety of issues we've got here on BP!