I'm finishing up and have read a bit of other material alongside listening to podcasts.

Become the master of your area.Take advantage of your free advertising, alongside a targeted, paid campaign.

Real brick is always timeless and classic in my opinion.Drive around some high end neighborhoods in your area and find what looks best color wise for door and shutter color.If there is room to plant some plants along the house that would look great, if not, build or get some classic looking planter boxes to go alongside the house and fill them with some color.

Private lending is something I have done for a few years alongside investing in buy and hold rental properties.  

The risk dynamics for real estate are a lot different and it seems like there should be incentive for portal operators to invest their own money alongside the crowd.  

. :)@matt - I was wondering more alongside of why your buddy decided to not sue.

In Haiti I assisted entrepreneurs in church congregations to plan bible-based, sustainable (profitable) small business plans; found Kingdom investors who made affordable loans to fund the businesses; and came alongside the entrepreneurs to counsel and encourage them to effectively implement their business plans. 

Alongside the fact the market is ridiculously hot right now.I like your example on the 10,000 Class C units within a specific tri-state area.  

Since then I have attained my real estate broker/sales license and am ready to start shadowing whoever is willing to allow me to work alongside them!

I highly recommend listening to the podcasts to get smart on a lot of strategies and things that will open your eyes to what's possible.I also recommend you lookup the Baton Rouge REIA/The RING that you can find on meetup.com to start learning along side of some investors that are good to know.