On top of that they promised a "fully renovated property" - then a few years later I get hit with a $26,000 renovation bill when the tenants got evicted (great work on the tenant screening guys).

I did look into working with a tax strategist and they wanted $5000 with no promise that I would recoup my investment, and that did NOT include preparing my taxes. 

There is many sites online now happy to provide a tenant a FAKE paystub.

(Zeroing out the fake income and expense for no tax deduction.)Same story as before.

(Meanwhile I come to realization that the best use for real estate actualy comes from appreciation and use of leverage PLUS we can live in the property when needed (eg: vacation,second home)The total return (in direct RE) is created from real estate appreciation using leverage so by paying off a property we are actually losing money compare if we buy in mortgage (this is especially true if rate of return of appreciation is higher than mortgage rate).in other word, buying real estate with cash is actually fake or money losing game.

I found it on PRPGT.com and it looks promising too.

Apartments and house­ hacking look promising.

Fake it til you make it, is a very common saying.When investors buy commercial it is often if, not always, based off of the numbers.

If I calculate my actual cap rate after 6 months by using their convention (Subtracting insurance, tax, property management from gross income) numbers match, thus I am getting what was promised on my proposal.

Are they real and not a fake person?