Period.Even Zillow encourages you to consult an appraiser.

I would encourage you to verify that any first time home buyer program you use will be available for an investment property and not just for owner occupied loans.

Thanks for the encouragement, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help out as we both jump into the RE sector 

And while I would never encourage anyone to overlook Birmingham, I have heard good things about Atlanta lately.

I would encourage you to come to the local REIA meeting.

I put this on my FB page, and it really encouraged a lot of people to really think about taking action in ways they hadn't thought of yet.This past January, Ashley Murphy and I got serious with the talks of her quitting her full time J.O.B.

We're all on BP to learn from, and provide services to, - other real estate investors. (401k providers that don't allow real estate investment in their plans would not be providing meaningful services to the BP real estate community.)

I can definitely see how people can get discouraged or even over-encouraged in this industry.

I hope all the fathers in the community are enjoying their day with family and friends.I was listening to a podcast where the panelists discussed valuable lessons they learned from their fathers.My dad always encouraged me to use my brain to figure things out for myself.

But you do raise good points and that's why I encourage people to do both - invest with the right Sponsor and invest directly from their personal account.