I've been reading through the court filings for the Lange case, and wow, this guy seems to have had putting people off for just a little bit longer down to a science.  

We dipped them in liquid nitrogen (his brother was a science teacher) and then let them thaw.

Appraising is an art and a science, you can't paint a master piece with a paint by numbers set.

If I baked in $10K for repairs in my offer and the house only needs $3K-$5K of work, I have no issues coming up on price if I think it will help the deal go smoother in one way or the other.It's not an exact science and is indeed the most difficult part of this whole venture, but with a little planning, being transparent to the seller, and someone to be your eyes/ears on the ground, it can be done.

I have read several books and listened to seminars and I am fascinated by this field.

I am fascinated with real estate and am currently looking to network with anyone and everyone who may be able to teach me a thing or two about investing.  

STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), medical, and legal are about the extent of useful degrees.I say that because if you're spending that sort of money (and six years of your lives) you should expect the resulting job prospects will enable you to pay back these loans.  

For what it's worth, I tour and underwrite 100s of large multifamily properties around the country each year.99.9% of the time, I use the 50% rule for my initial back-of-the-envelope analysis to see if the property warrants more time and investigation.Sure, it's not an exact science and if you have time to run numbers and investigate every deal great, but these guidelines were created by (and for) people who have to make very quick decisions on whether or not a property is worth further investigation.And funny enough, the company I work for owns over 45 large multifamily properties (~9,000 units).  

Sorry for the questions, these coaching programs fascinate me.

Having been thru a number of real estate cycles since starting in the late 70's (and as an observer before that) I remain fascinated at how quickly people forget.