Tom: If you know what your payments are for Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance, plus any thing else you will be paying then the next question is...."How much can you rent the property for"? Here's a great tool for determining what you can rent a property for in any area. It is based on current information and allyou need is fill in the blanks. Go to: http://www.rentometer.com - It'g free, check it out!!!

Good Luck!

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Hello Tom,
It's hard to say as the rental market is soft right now and rents vary from area to area. I would recommend that you connect with a local realtor who is familiar with investment property .

Tough question- Obviously it depends on the location. I would suggest checking out rents in the locations you're looking at (Craigslist.com seems to be a good resource for that). Rents in PS haven't gone up that much lately. I have a couple of rental listings for 3 bedroom 2 bath homes that would probably sell for about $300,000 now, that are getting about $1,500/month. I don't think you'd have a positive cash flow with only 25% down at this time. I think you'd end up making your money probably by renting it out, taking the deduction and appreciation, and then selling the property in a few years once the market goes up.

You might be better off buying a couple of condos for around $49,000 which will rent for about $700/month. That may be a more lucrative approach for cash flow purposes.