Hi there :)I'm brand new to real-estate investing but motivated to take action and start gaining momentum on my dreams of building a portfolio of properties. 

A good friend of mine has a real estate related service business he wanted to scale.  

Go ahead and file.In real life it costs you time to figure it out and money.

Have you found them to be genuinely helpful in advancing your real estate goals?

@Lauren Lewis, also one of our members Barb Mayne hosts a monthly meeting for the Topeka / Lawrence areas - it is on the MAREI Calendar and she also has a facebook group and a group on meetup - eKARI  Eastern Kansas Association of Real Estate Investors.

That is part of the problem with a lot of companies (I am not knocking insula as dont have all the info/facts just stating how the business works), they engage brokers to get them loans and the brokers collect a small fee. unfortunately many of the brokers may be similar to real estate wholesalers - have little to no experience. 

In my case, I have residential rentals in one LLC, commercial properties in another, self-storage in a third, and my real estate company operates in a fourth.

@Nicholas Nocella - Congrats on starting your real estate investing journey!

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I am learning in the real estate business as well but in the Kentucky/Tennessee Market!