In several cases I have spent time educating them on lists, calls and the need to have buyers ready. 

If I had spent 30k to get going 4 years ago it wouldn’t have any effect on my today.

I spent about 6k to get rid of the smoke smell including painting, cleaning the vents, cleaning the furniture etc.  

Hopefully have them tour you through some of their properties and ask them how much they have spent, what they did, etc.  

It cost me a few hundred bucks, but it was money well-spent, because it helped me understand how to design the flood mitigation system...rather than approaching it via trial and error, I was able to build a flood mitigation system that worked the first time, and the house hasn't flooded since.

I believe a lesson to be learned is the dollar earned today should not be spent for 6 months.  

She went on to run a few C 21's  and was a trainer for Floyd Wickman ( one of the true great Guru's).Fast forward to today.. and all her business is by referral.. last year she closed 15 million or little more with no one penny spent on advertising... other than signs for the properties..

I spent a good amount of money and never got a single deal.

I spent $25k on renovating my house after renting it for 15 years so theirs nothing unsual here as far as real estate capital investments go. 

I have spent the past few months learning as much as I can about real estate, and recently learned about signing agents and their role from the Bigger Pockets podcast episode.