Now I am thinking of selling the complex next year but keeping my two houses in California which are almost paid off and rented.  

I also wanted to put in a plug for Phil's newly-revised model you can find on the following thread:Apartment Complex ModelI would love to get your feedback on the latest model incarnation after you study some Robert.

Which adds complexity to the deal... especially when the 1st don't agree to pay the "3rd or 4th" lien and you have to pay out side of closing... in that case.. someone can argue that is RESPA violation ;)... so it's a touchy touchy area...2 - Make sure home doesn't have MI (mortgage insurance)... these guys will kill your deal if you have MI on the loan.

We've been looking at condos for sale recently, and many of the condominium complexes look nice at first glance, but huge problems come up when you look closer.

I've asked an HOA here in Southern Cal for an electronic copy of their reserve study, since we are thinking about putting an offer in on a condo (the exterior railings of the complex have extensive wood rot and termite damage).

This is a simple example and I've seen some complex ones that required superior court judicial decision.

My sister lives there and has a ear for the area (she works in/near the condo complex).4.

Evern without SAFE, in my state if the buyer defaults, the foreclosure process has recently changed and become more complex (and I assume possibly more costly for a "one of" foreclosure process).

As for renting to a cop, no, it will not help your complex.

In terms of drops I am not talking every 30 to 60 days.I am talking every 3 to 4 days or 1 week max.If this was a property needing a bunch of work I wouldn't overprice it when listing it.If the seller wasn't realistic I wouldn't list the property.I have over a thousand investors in my database built up over the years.It is guaranteed that when I take the listing only when priced right and market it I will not need a wholesaler.I will easily land a direct investor or buyer for purchase.The more people you have in a chain the more complex the deal gets.I like to keep it simple,control it,and close it.The point I was making before is if a property is listed at 80,000 and the investor offer is 40,000 then for the seller simply reduce 1 to 2 times every week until an offer comes in.It doesn't do harm to list it a little high to start out for the first week or two but then you have to reduce ahead of the curve to sell quick.Banks do this all the time.When I list a commercial short sale it is very rare for a bank to take the first offer.If I have it listed at 400,000 and the payoff is 1 million.I might get 5 offers in.One at 380,420,460,540,410 etc.That market value isn't the loan balance but what current sold comps are.By the asset manager reviewing price and terms of each offer and the net the bank sees that the property has had full exposure and here is the top of the value they can extract for the file.The asset manager then shows the supervisor,director etc. to get final approval.While it is true a seller has holding costs they have to weigh the price offered versus what they could get if they hold out a little longer.Banks sell thousands to tens of thousands of properties a year so they know how to extract top dollar for a property.Sometimes you get lucky and land a new asset manager or buy at the right time of the year when banks want to dump the property.