But I could never wrap my head around buying it without going through a bank and getting a huge loan, so my dream kind of went on the back burner, so to speak.Recently, I took up a part time job as an independent contractor doing occupancy checks for some companies.

As always, I enjoy reading from you and your single minded and independent views, even though you challenged the post: the underlying assumption is that the investment of capital ( intellectual, time etc), are undertaken prior to the initial investment decision, afterwhich, it becomes literally auto pilot.Your points are clearly noted and I agree with you that time is needed for the investment to remain current as circumstances that informed the initial decision may change.....Thanks again.

Everyone's idea of financial independence is different but there are certainly investors who have used real estate to achieve what just about anyone would consider financial independence in 5 years.

@Arthur EdmundIndeed, SF is a very unique market that is almost independent of the national RE trends.

I've created a small portfolio of 1-4 family properties, where I've found, purchased, project managed a team of contractors through rehab, financed, refinanced, and managed the properties independently. 

Typically there is an independent inspector who comes to verify the items completed (and there is about $100 fee for each inspection/draw).

Hello everyone, my name is Alex, I'm 26 and live in the south of France.I work as technical sale engineer and beside I invest in real estate in order to be financially independant in 10/15 years.

Is there any way to independently verify that there are in fact 8 roofs sitting on this property?

Financial analysis, you never combined values of independent variables of another subject to value an alternative.

I currently have a day job but taking the first step towards financial independence by signing up here.