Home buyers now have a wealth of data about local foreclosures and about themselves which they accumulated using the tips just given

1. Pick a price cap on finding a home, beyond which you will not go. You must control your investments so you have a secure future. You'll often hear stories of how people broke the rules and made millions buying homes. But, you must follow certain home buying guidelines until you've built a strong feel for real estate you can easily sell quickly or rent at high levels in just days. The best guarantee of real estate success for you is to plan and carefully follow what has worked for thousands of others buying home foreclosures in their spare time.

2. You must get an income from your foreclosure properties and homes. If you don't, there's no point in buying homes or any other type of real estate. Your real estate income can be either in the form of rent from home units you lease to tenants or in the form of profit you derive from the sale of real estate units you take over in real estae foreclosure actions. Either way, you must come away from each real estate deal with profit that you can spend for yourself and loved ones, invest in other real estate properties, or save for the future. Remember that real estate is a business and as such, it must give you an income. If it doesn't, get into another business!

3. Every real estate property you deal with that's in foreclosure will have expenses associated with it. It's rare that any property will have all possible expenses. But most homes for sale will have some so you must be ready to pay them. And the way you get ready for those home repair expenses is:

- Know how much you can afford to spend on your real estate investments and,

- Analyze (in advance) your probable real estate expenses. While this may seem like work, it really is fun, especially when you go to the bank to deposit your real estate rental or profit checks!

3. You must have a positive cash flow from every rental property you own, no matter how you bought it. People sometimes think that if they get a piece of real estate for a low price, it doesn't need a positive cash flow to make money for them. Not so! You must have a positive cash flow for every real estateproperty - even if it costs you only $25 to take over. Why? Because a negative cash flow property can drain your resources, leading to financial ruin. So avoid such real estate properties like the plague. It's better to take longer to find the right positive cash flow property than to jump into an investment that gives you nothing but grief.