So I had them give me a fee equal to a full months rent, told them I wouldn't hold it that long but I would start the lease part way through May and the fee converted into their deposit after they had paid the first month's rent and signed the lease (before moving in).

You can see that estimating your expense is important.If you are paying cash then the cap.rate and appreciation equals your return. 

Usually that number will equal roughly 40-50% of the ARV.  

My brother last minute, is having a change of heart in dumping 300 k into the business and instead, is looking into having our LLC, of which we are all equal partners, take a loan out or mortgage from his personal account, to then repay.

Either you take your chips off the table, you hold, or you keep buying chips.Bruce says affordability at 30% should have room to go lower, toward the 17% of past cycles; BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, lending is so tight that things could be different this time.Harry Dent has strong opinions about the near term future of the market; John Burns has equally strong contrary opinions.  

Cheap doesn't equal good. 

I could live with it, but got sick of how he padded the money.The plumber -- I want to say again -- gave me a price on the water heater that was equal to what I found on the web. 

It is based on the concept of "first in time equals first in line"Here is the kicker though:property tax liens get automatic priority over all other liens no matter when they were recorded.

If the purchase price of the land is equal to or greater than the value of your relinquished property, then your capital gain would be deferred without the need to complete an Improvement 1031 Exchange. 

With 6 houses that is $3,000 per month but it would take triple that to equal what my salary is.