Here in Nashville, the market has slowed.

Most of my Rehab buyers have disappeared but the Land Lords are buying! Rents are going up for the first time in 7 years.

I am shifting the wholesale part of my investing to cater to land lords and rehabbers who specialize in the 70-175K price range.

Whats working in your neck of the woods?

Same thing not many want to rehab unless there is a huge spread as with the new tighter lending guidelines there are less regular buyers who can qualify to purchase.

Definitely through 2009 there will be many landlords buying long term rentals and also developers building big apartment complexes.That's where in my area the cycle is going for the next few years.

I am seeing the same things.

We have a PILE of condos on the market, being built, or permitted for down town. Most of them were originally going to be restricted owner occupant only. A couple of the big projects have been put on hold and several are having the deed restrictions re-written to allow rentals.

Lease options are becoming more popular as a way to move properties at retail prices.

I recently bought two more older 5 bedroom properties located near a major university and converted them to student housing. Student rentals are extremely profitable. The two houses are on different streets but are back to back. I created a common area out of the back yards with a couple of grills, Cement tables and benches with outdoor lighting. The rents run for a 10 month period with the option of doing a 12 month lease and are based on the number of occupants with 3 being the minimum. I put combination deadbolts on each of the bedroom doors for individual security and privacy and I converted one of the garage into 10 individual storage areas for other secured belongings such as bikes etc. The other garage I will either use for maintainence storage or I will rent it out seperately. The rent includes all utilities, basic cable and wireless internet that can be shared by both properties. The places will be complete in May of this year and I have leases already signed for both properties both with 4 students each.

Look at University rentals as a good investment choice.

Great idea Paul.

Have you had any problems with "group or community housing" codes issues?

Metro Nashville is starting to crack down on that in neighborhoods around Vanderbilt U.

hmmm, do you worry at all about the funding/loan cuts and skyrocketing tuition impacting the student rental market?

That does not worry me at all. Parents are always going to find a way to send their kids to college and in most cases it is cheaper to rent student housing that it is to live in the dorm.

They are already in a student housing area so it was not a concern.

I'll second Paul on the student housing niche. Very profitable!

There is a great book out on student housing landlording that you might want to check out on Amazon if you're interested in the niche:

"University Wealth: 21 Success Secrets to Buy & Manage Student Rental Property" by Marleen Geyen

Yeah, it seems like the turn in the market is making it very hard to profit from rehabs. However, despite housing prices, the economy is still pretty decent and vacancies are low, thus the rents are rising here too.

The rental market is very strong here in Minneapolis. We are seeing investors realizing we are really in a perfect storm. Rental demand is high, most believe we are at or near the bottom of the market as far as pricing, and interest rates are very affordable. This is creating some unbelievable buying opportunities. We have some agents on our team that literally have sold 20 plus properties to the same investor here in 2008. It seems to me that the "heavy weight" investors who understand the markets realize the unique buying opportunity that exists currently.

We primarily focus on buy, hold and rent here in the Minneapolis real estate market.

I think as lenders tighten up their guidelines, rents will continue to raise. Now alot of people can escape to become a homeowner to try an save the rental dollars. Its time for landlords to raise the rents because when renters are able to buy again any rentals hike will be out the door.

I am loving it here in Houston. The rental market has lept up 11% in the last year. It is a great time for cash flow investing. I really wasn't as keen on the real estate boom it was very hard to find a cash flowing rental then. Now they are in every part of town. I am glad so many are sitting on the sidelines as it is going to allow for a huge wealth transfer. But, what's new it happens every down cycle. If you look at the majority of self made millionaires they set the ground work for their wealth during a down cycle.