Create company with systems and good people in place so the company will run without me, 5 crews each rehabbing 9 houses a year, being led by crew leaders i enjoy hanging out with.

Any monkey could go to a group of small real estate investors or construction/rehab types and with cash hanging out of his pockets offer to loan it out and there will be those who will take it.

You would be wise to hang with construction estimators or take class like the fix up class that Norris Group does in California.

But lately we are thinking it may be better to hang on to this duplex as an investment.

The city leaders hang their heads in shame because they did things to improve close-in poor areas (areas that had been redlined by the banks) and created gentrification.So the developers have to spread the expense around and create even more expensive condos to compensate for their losses on the low-income portions.

.* Go ahead and get your agent's license and prepare to hang your shingle with an investor-friendly transaction fee-based agency.

Or just hang out and network?

Probably not what you were looking for but I like to take summers off to hang with my kid.

There are lots of very simple and effective way to market that you buy houses without spending a lot of money from signs in the yard, bandit signs around the neighborhood, negotiating with a local business that has a blank wall facing a major street (think gas station on a corner) to hang a banner on the side.

Although I am no longer a licensed agent in Texas, this is the time frame that it took me to go from un-licensed to licensed:Jan 3rd - Ordered course online from agentcampus.comJan 20th - Found broker to sponsor / hang licenseJan 30th - Submitted 150 completed course work to TRECMarch 1st - TREC responds needing finger printing & bg checkApril 15th - TREC BG check / Finger prints receivedApril 15th - Pay HAR/TAR/NAR/CSS/Broker duesApril 20th - License "active"May 1st - 1st contract writtenSo it takes roughly 5 months from start to finish.