This may be the last large gathering ever to assemble at the Lincoln Memorial.

Our current education system does exactly what it was designed for -- producing millions of people just smart enough to work on an assembly line.

One of your questions - getting a real estate license - is quite popular; I assembled a bunch of thread links about this subject in a post at this next link:http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/55/topics/39235-new-member-from-phoenix-az

Doing so gives the borrower legal standing to force the sale of the note as a means to pay the debt, sometimes a discount is accepted, if not, it may require the par value be paid, but really, a discount is better than foreclosure, sale, holding the property, listing it for sale and on and on....Foreclosures have been streamlined like a Model T assembly line now with all of the activity, many in the process are nothing more than clerks with limited banking experience, so what they know is what they have been told to do.

If they have been detached, assembled into a larger parcel (a "play" we always called this when I was in this business) and are now owned by some oil company your likelihood of buying those for an individual parcel is zilch.

But, because they are very much an assembly line for listings, they do a horrible job of "customer service" (i.e., working with buyers and their agents).Because of this, there are many buyers agents in this area who will refuse to show a house listed with this flat fee agency, and the sellers of these houses are losing potential buyers by listing with this flat-fee agency.That said, flat fee in general doesn't necessarily seem like a bad idea...just make sure you do your research and know what you're getting (and not getting) from the agency...

You can also use a title company to assemble one and save yourself quite a bit in legal costs by avoiding an attorney.In my opinion, lease options are viable, but they are certainly problematic and you should not proceed without careful consideration and legal advice.

I would not suggest a beginner to start investing out of state. you need to assemble a team that you trust to help accomplish your goals (property manager, contractors, realtor, real estate attourney,ect).

I worked on assembling commercial projects for big developers.A key component is financing.I can't tell you how many projects I have seen start to end up being foreclosed on.The equity partner ends up suing all involved.So before any money is invested proper disclosure need to be signed using an attorney to CYA.One of my friends revitalizes downtown districts using credits from the government to offset costs.

Believe it or not, this is something zillow might have, if it was ever made public, since they gather public info and assemble it into their site.