Those margins are a byproduct of educating myself which is an ongoing process.

That can only be part of the plan, in fact that is simply the by product of the plan.

Clearly this instance hits a little closer to home (my pocketbook) hence my beef.

They have beefed up their offering so you can now maintenance requests and track expenses as well through their website.

I would take that saving and beef up premises liability to 1 mil. 

It's just a by product of having teams set up already and being so active in studying the neighborhoods and seeking deals. 

After that, you beef everything up with your content marketing, updating your blogs, and making whatever changes or additions you need to make as you go along.In terms of "wasting time", clearly Omar Ruiz didnt waste it because he was beefing up his knowledge and getting set up properly.

I would focus on repairing your credit. see a specialist (faster) or open credit cards little by little and pay them off each month. im not saying increase your spending, just saying instead of buying that tank of gas in cash use a cc and immediately pay it off. while your credit is repairing, start banking cash. build a budget and stick to it. 80K a year is good money, make it a goal of yours to retain as much of it as possible i.e. don't eat out, don't go to the local pub, drive a modest paid off car etc. once your credit is up and savings is up, use the 80k a year plus savings to get leverage. then use that leverage to buy your properties. if your looking for a get rich quick scheme, id advise u skip over RE. don't get me wrong, you can make money fast by flipping homes but you didn't mention having experience in that area so I assume you don't. another option if your really in a hurry is to find a partner with experience and cash, and see if you can buy into one of his/hers deals. you would have to market yourself for this and see what type of skills they may need that you have. maybe you can buy in and use your web development skills to beef up and/or maintain your partners website saving them money on outsourcing. that might be your ticket into a partnership. since you mentioned your helping your friend, maybe you can partner with him?

Anyone that's been investing for longer than 13 minutes will look up the assessor info on who owns it and how held, when they bought, for how much, etc in less than 2  minutes  (outside of TX apparently) so that's not Zillows fault.Good thing for flippers is most buyer's are owner-occs and won't do this, so I see your beef. 

Just is a byproduct of doing business in neighborhoods like that.