I also realized that there's a lot of house flipping work that I actually enjoy doing - I enjoy putting together IKEA cabinets, painting, cleaning, doing landscaping - but I enjoy them when I'll see some fruits for those labors!

But the Charlotte local REIA meeting is this Thursday. http://charlottereia.com/I'll be honest there will def be some package they are trying to sell but other than that I usually find them to be pretty fruitful and at the very least a solid networking opportunity.

Ideally, both.However some reasoning I have seen and feels logical is as follows:If you reduce your expenses by $X, you have saved $X.If you increase your income by $X, you have generated $X - taxes - value of time worked to earn that money - any other factors.So in terms of low-lying fruit (what is easiest/quickest to accomplish) cutting expenses AND THEN SAVING THE DIFFERENCE is what I would recommend doing first.My wife and I put this into practice. 

Debating this in the abstract on a message board is entertaining, but not very fruitful past most of what has already been hashed out hundreds of times on BP.Regarding the post above about active control producing above average returns I would challenge how the studies accounted for the time requirements active participation carries with it.  

My only caution is that I know John Jackson and the guy is freakin' NUTS!  

Being a bit young and nuts I went here to invest in real estate myself, ended up doing a startup in the real estate industry and now run a real estate consultancy and brokerage myself with my wife and some local partners.I'm trying to inject a bit of Australian integrity into the process and have run through it myself a few times (have a number of properties here).

Well in a nut shell... he gave me about 6 zip codes to look at.  

I've followed some of the basic principles that Bigger Pockets outlines, and they were fruitful for me on my first project.

This site and community are worth their weights in gold.Since joining BP I can attest to the fact that my REI knowledge and skills have increased tremendously, coupled with the fact that I am being interactive with like minded individuals who are focused and excited about the success of others.BP and its community are here to stay and will continue to be a model for others to emulate.It clearly shows that persistence, hard work and dedication can certainly bear fruit in the building and expansion of a purpose driven platform without spam and other distractions.320,000 members and counting are a testament to the demand for an active and serious community driven REI site.Great job @Joshua Dorkin, @Brandon Turner, as well as the rest of the supporting team and of course the BP community!

This will allow our contractor to focus on more nuts and bolts work rather than demo and prep.Today our in house guy is running outlets and lights for the upstairs of the house which to our knowledge has not been lived in since at least 1978.