A combination of more attorneys attracted to the field and a liberal agenda leading the courts have led to the need for top notch legal representation and a air tight and well prepared deed of trust.

jon, i see where you're goin with this.it creates a reverse auction in a way...hopefully it'll attract a frenzy....but if not, how low are you willing to go...ie: what is your reserve??

On salaries: they have to be high enough to attract applicants, but they also have to be high enough to retain employees.Maybe you could hire police for very low wages.

In other words, if you are able to find a person that would be a good tenant in all the other ways that matter, then honoring an agreement about smoking only outside would less likely be a problem.The remainder of the equation is figuring out if it's going to bother you too much if they were to smoke outside, and also not make a mess out there (another problem with smokers besides smelling it on breath/clothes).

The house is at a very good location, and the pricing is quite attractive based on our analysis.

I first filter out the ugly people...that eliminates about 95% of the leads...Then I sort out the idiots and liberals...That leaves me with the moderately attractive conservatives that I can work with..I actually have a VA I've used for years that pulls the MLS data for houses in the zip codes I want.

Are the "richer" people attracted to the nicer looking rentals?

I'll still buy cash flow rentals but the tax and borrowing loss makes it less attractive than buying notes which is where I'm beginning to shift my focus.

Handwritten attracts tenants.

Once you get settled in and catch your breath, you could create another win/win with a business model not only for asset preservation (which we utilized them MDA here in CA on Ocwen REOs), but also for Investors that flip and do not have the time to babysit projects... could use a smart, go-getter team like yours.