Ben is all about collaboration over pure transactions.

Charleston has a very active REI community and several meetup/networking events each month that are pure gold.

There are two idea I’m batting around in my head right now to get started on my REI journey – I can do it purely on the investing side and become a private lender or a source of hard money loans to builders/developers (maybe that looks like funding a construction loan collecting interest payments while buying time to better understand the dynamics and build relationships) or I can JV/partner with a builder and get equity (upside on a flip/sale) which would be more hands on.Curious what ya’ll input, what you think is the best route for me to dip my toes into REI given my aforementioned situation and current market.

And in general there is a lot of downplaying of risk in the pursuit of pure ROI.None of that is wrong I guess, it's just not my style. 

@Rick Albert assuming that in your situation you and your investor are owning/managing these as purely investments and thus holding everything via a partnership operating agreement?  

House hack or pure investment?

This will demonstrate how the property performs as a pure rental, and it forces you to save.

Is it purely interest?

To me, mid-tier houses are likely one of the best long-term appreciation investments because they are sought after by so many people in that market, a smaller percentage of people can afford luxury houses and also they may be more volatile but there's always demand for the mid tier price range for the average Joe.I consider myself a serious investor, my LTR's are in a place I would otherwise never travel to, my own preferences and opinions on the location are meaningless as this is purely a long-term investment decision for me and I won't allow personal preference for a location to impact my decisions.

*disclaimer* i'm not saying you could get those specific terms, its purely for example purposes.