But I do want to invest in real estate, and I'm eager to learn from those willing to offer advice.The most attractive option we've got currently involves a family member.

@Jason Branch,You'll also want to learn how to attract and engage private lenders.Ideally, you want none of your own personal cash or credit in a deal - it should stand alone on its own merit.

Very attractive way to enter the world of investing and also build further resources for your next investment.

Then I will be able to use this track record to attract more investors for larger deals in future. 

Hello BP,If I find a good deal on a large apartment complex, but don't have the money for the downpayment ($500-700k), what kind of product or offer can I structure to talk about with friends and family who might want...

I know you'll encounter some of this with any rental, but I don't think it's a stretch to think that a slightly more expensive units will attract less-stressful tenants.

In these cases, the specific sector was over-inflated and collapsed as faulty - maybe even fraudulent financial vehicles and/or practices were introduced to suck even more money out of the sector as it heated up.Just because the dot com sector eventually swallowed reality and fixed its fundamentals on value products/services, the energy sector resolved in the courts, and the housing sector flushed out its overly speculative practices (many of which were really bank-driven, primarily as loans issued to folks who had no business buying housing - and toxic mortgage packages created with weird names and no vehicle history to attract investments thus made with no due diligence and no 3rd party oversight - which took unprecedented government intervention and bailout across many sectors to fix), doesn't mean that the next sector downturn trigger doesn't lurk out there.What some call creativity or innovation is really just greed masked in packages so new and weird that due diligence is nearly impossible.  

@Mindy Jensen  I was trying to TAg  Greg H. on the thread were the lady got a call from HUD for trying to wholesale a HUD home as she does not have the means to actually close it.. he did chime in on the post  thank you.. 

I don't like yard-signs because it just attracts calls from nosey neighbors. 

I see now a lot of fresh inventory hit the market, but anything attractive sells within days.