Say you do all that and get 50 extra a month but spent 3,000 in lost rent and repairs.

@Dawn Anastasi Hey Dawn, I have a different take as I spent 20 years actually working for banks.

You may also find the $300-$400 spent on your own appraisal to be money well spent too.

Or, thinking a bit outside the box, could the original owner be a 1% (or less) beneficiary of the trust and the co-owned LLC a 99% beneficiary?

Plaintiff, ACM Liberty Residential LLC PO BOX 25430, Portland, OR 97298 is due:Principal $139,585.89Interest from 11/01/10 to the 10/21/2013 $13,411.31Court cost, now taxed $280.75Other: Negative Trust Balance $- 2,793.58Other: Paralegal's fees 2.90 hours at $85.00 hourly rate $246.50Other: Attorney's fees 22.30 hours at $250.00 hourly rate $5,575.00TOTAL $161,893.032.

I spent 6 - 9 months, studying, reading, talking, and looking at properties.

The best 10% I ever spent.

So the costs I have spent so far towards building the house are (blueprints, permit fees, septic/well costs, labor/materials).

We have a couple Roku boxes, and use Netflix, Hulu and Vudu for all our programming and movies.

As a fellow newbie I'm encouraged by your decision to step our and pursue Real Estate Investing.I can second @Mehran Kamari's reading list - I've spent time going through many of those titles.