The strategy is basically acquire the property, make it habitable, put a renter in for two years and then continue renting or resell.

Basic expenses of 5% for vacancies, 10% for repairs, 10% for property management, and 10% for cap ex means the $1250 in rent only brings in $812.50 in income.

When you account for the time value of money, we basically broke even...not what I would consider a success.  98% of the calls received from the campaign were people asking to be removed from the list.  

I have basically used my income and savings to fund these deals plus the holding costs, and even though I can take my time and have the rehab/s completed at a leisurely pace or so, that is the slow-slow approach and isn't quite the plan I had in mind from the beginning.  

In this case, when building, the commission will be over 10k and he basically just needs to sign some documents, it is definitely worth it.

I have a close friend whose dad owns an assisted living business here in Fresno California.So basically what he did was by a large house, about five or six rooms, added more rooms to it by splitting up the living room, adding a section in the back, etc.

Now for the bigger picture, basically, I want to flip houses for a living (yes, I want to leave my job [surprise, surprise]) and own rental properties all throughout the US. 

I have asked area property managers how they handle this situation and they said they do basically the same thing.

Some very basic principles are as follows: 3-month LIBOR rate measures the rate at which banks will lend each other money.

It's basically blue collar with a lot of rentals, crime rates about MSA average, etc.