The most important things you need to know is.......How to find your deal - power prospecting - distressed properties - ugly houses - sellers with problems - houses with problems.Next - how to negotiate - some investors say "If the seller doesn't cry - your offer is too high".You also have to be prepared with a well designed contract of sale that gives you -----Right of possession - disclosures to assign your contract -Full Disclosures - a profit disclosures - assignment disclosure - and a an important clauses to say what happens if you can't find an assignee and you have to walk away without a profit while the seller looks at you very disappointed - make sure you don't embarrass yourself using unproved flip techniques - get it right the first  time, get educated on the right way to do a flip deal. 

You’ve got to prepare to be disappointed and stay on top of people.2.It is easy to overpay for a propertyEver done it?

And as you point out that could be true with you have a track record  a Deep Rolodex ( you know that thing you put your contacts in)... but as a new investor I think shopping for the deals and spending all that time effort etc without some kind of financial commitments or baking is doing it backwards and can lead to frustration and disappointment.

@Alex Craig   agreed... if one was to then listen to the POD cast that brie has done with the man on the street turn key owner these issues are talked about at length..its funny in this industry its tough to get folks to post about any negative interaction with the TK providers... much to my disappointment and dismay.. so I agree with you..

I don't mean to sound harsh (I know it does) especially since it's your friend but I only say it that way because just because a friend is interested does not mean they are serious and it's actually best to put them to this test ahead of time as opposed to trying to get him in on a deal and them running into disappointments later, and potentially affecting your friendship.  

Hi @Jonathan Thrasher - that's really disappointing and I'm sorry to hear that.

I didn’t know that at the time, so several weeks later when I received an email from the realtor with about three choices which weren’t even in my search criteria I was highly disappointed.

I keep hoping prices will come down to at least the $200k range, but so far I've been pretty disappointed.

Must say, after doing a reasonable amount of looking around i am not surprised by your comment, but nonetheless really disappointed... does this mean i should give up?

Now, to know he feels defeated not by his work, but by his employees, I feel a sense of disappointment.