So I am trying to help a friend piece together a deal.

She is upside down on an "investment" condo she owns and currently rents out. She owes $300,000 on it and it's probably worth $240,000 right now. She doesn't w...

Hi Josh,I'd say that anyone who associates themselves with the term "real estate guru" is self-proclaimed.I think it goes against the culture of real estate investing to say that we can do better than our peers, and by calling oneself a Guru, I think this is the resulting effect.

Should one's life choices be made by oneself, or another beings or group of beings?

But then again, one can "learn the hard way" (by experiencing for oneself), or one can "learn the easy way" (observing others experiences); this one falls into the category where I would definitely prefer to learn the easy way.

As someone who presumably wants the job of President one day, reinforcing the image defined by McCain's campaign after the last election (not good) and large-scale self-deprecation (using the word "rogue" to describe oneself) doesn't seem like the way to go.

What Mitch described above perfectly illustrates the need to protect oneself.

Additionally, we hoped to use an FHA loan on a property in California once we were done paying for my school and thought that having a rental property would knock out that option.We did discuss it though- I'm trying to make sure that I'm not throwing artificial barriers in my own path since I know that's an easy thing to do to distract oneself from actually making difficult decisions and taking concrete action.

I DO get it: calling oneself a "wholesaler" implies some sort of value under market to the buyer.

No need to force oneself to be miserable and paranoid.

All that to say is that investing is a process that takes time to educate oneself and prepare financially/mentally.