And always check social media for red flags and I agree with Vince, always meet a person.  

Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

I'm going to exclude my personal residence from this because I don't view this as an investment, I need a place to live.Excluding my primary residence my current breakdown is 47% real estate 53% stocks/cash. 

@Jason Weidmannit's only solid if:1) you pick a market that you can go to in person and build a team first, and 2) you recognize that RE is a long-term investment, and you may have to wait 5-10 years, or longer, before seeing ANY return. 

So PLEASE don’t make another huge financial decision and then tell that same person after you do it.

We make people take photos of themselves holding their ID and then I also meet them in person for the showing - at least for my units on the NW side of Chicago.I've never heard of these testers, but I am not surprised. 

I would be fine with a $10k non-refundable retainer and $500/hr. personally.

I'm never going to use your website because I already have personal relationships with people doing that work.

Make sure your personality matches your path.  

I've done enough personal home projects to know, if I find a deck company it'll be 2k, but a GC will charge me 2.5k to over see it...