That's a pretty wild ride for your first official deal.

I ride my bike around my neighborhood here in Sacramento & I often see the house with the long grass, beat up car, dry rot, etc. and think "that looks like a flipper". 

Most people I know wonder why I drive a 30 year old car and ride a 20 year old motorcycle.A new car is not part of the plan, I say.What plan?

Family is from there, and it will be the start to investing with my brother - should be an interesting ride.

We don't want to rely on retirement age and the roller-coaster ride that is the 401k/stock market.

Like a kid, learning to ride a bike for the first time, it will be wobbly.

In short I had a lot of limited beliefs and a very tall very thick wall around me.I investigated Gino through emails, post like yours and even taking a ride up to his restaurant about an hour north of the city.

It's worth noting that the market recovered in 8 quarters during the last recession, and good syndicators will be agile enough to deploy a strategy to ride these troughs out - have a look at this-U.S.

I think what most people want is a partner for the ride in RE.  

They own houses in suburban markets and badly manage the vacancies when they hoped to ride on the upward value float.