This is a great place to learn and to connect with people so take advantage of all the great resources.Welcome aboard and best of luck investing!

At this time I manage and renovate majority of all my units to keep cost low but most likely not the best use of my time although I'm skilled at it.

This is not the way to analyze a deal.

Note investing can be broadly categorized into two classes – performing and non-performing notes.

I've been wanting to get into real estate since when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki in 2004.

3) Understand what works in this market. 

Hey, how about when ya gotta replace a front door because swat used a armored car mounted battering ram to plow down the front door.

The biggest hurdle I see with arbitrage is developing a pitch to use when approaching landlords, which you can probably do with a little research on BP and ChatGPT.

Eric,, I think why people go for the fund model is the idea that they are spreading their money into multiple notes being held by the company.. while in theory this is great but as you noted you don't really have any security compared to being the beneficiary of the debt instrument IE debt is in your name. 

Here is a list of states divided into three categories, based on my internet research.