This is going to be a hard and expensive lesson, but you probably won't do it again! 

Lessons learned?

Hello,I’m a new college who made a goal to buy my first rental property by the time i’m 25 (which would be in 2 years) and am starting my career as a commercial real estate broker in Grand Rapids, MI.

Far too many people do not get any references or do any checks on an individual and when they do many times it comes back to be a very hard lesson learned.

Lessons learned?

UNIVERSITY OR COLLEGE TOWN?

It’s college living.

My passion for real estate investing started in college, and I’m particularly interested in single-family homes and multifamily buildings.

I, like many used to think “newbies” posted questions or asked for “help” to obtain the best advice from experienced investors, obtain guidance on strategic alternatives, or get a qualified opinion on whether the latest hot guru was worth the $40k price of admission.But, I was WRONG.No, none of those reasons are why newbies come to BP.They don’t want to find out that their “revelation” about how to invest has been tried about 10 million times - with limited successThey don’t want to learn that without capital, knowledge and experience their willingness to commit weekends is near uselessThey don’t want our opinion that they should skip trying to wholesale and spend some time learning as a licensed agentThey don’t want advice that has them taking classes at community colleges or learning real estate law, finance, or principles.So WHAT do they seek when they come to BPThey want comfort, encouragement. and to be told their thoughts are correct.

There are reviews of sponsors over in that category as well as a lot of horror stories but in those you can read the lessons learned and things you should do to vet a sponsor.