Best way to bring in investors?

[Jesse G.]

Hi BiggerPockets Community,

I am somewhat new to the real estate investing world (about 1 year into it), but have been having a lot of success buying and renting single family homes/duplexes in my area. In just over a year I have purchased 22 units, and am continuing to grow.

Over the last couple of months, I have been approached by a bunch of (out of state) people who would like to invest in what I am doing, but I have had a lot of trouble trying to figure out the best way to get them involved.

I'm hoping some of you might have some suggestions. Here are some of the issues:

- Each outside investor has a different $ amount they want to invest (ranging from $50k to 100s).

- Since they are out of state, I need to have full authority to buy/rent/sell properties on their behalf.

- I need to be able to profit (either through an ownership stake, or through fees) for the work I do in finding these investment opportunities.

In an ideal world, I would like to get people involved by setting up some sort of real estate fund, in which I use investors money as I see best fit and pay out a dividend. But from my understanding that is incredibly hard to set up and cost prohibitive (due to SEC regulations).

I'm sure there are many ways to go about this, and would really appreciate anyone's input and advice.

Thanks!