I look forward to reading all of Ted W's and Rich's post in the forums (JScotts too).I consider my self as a newbie.

Probably going to be an oft repeated question, but ..How much time did this house take from end to end?

I've used Freedom$oft for over two years now and have trained several of my Mentees to use it. 

In some states, you must be an MLO to negotiate short sales; in some states, you need to be a licensed real estate agent; in some states, it's basically illegal to market for short sale leads without crossing lots of T's and dotting lots of I's.That said, we did this successfully for about a year, until the short sale market dried up in that area (Atlanta).

Claude Boiron used to have a course at U of T, but I haven't seen anything recently.

The argument that banks net less after foreclosure than they do in a short sale is an oft-repeated lie.

I've got a waiting list of people that are tired of staying in a motel that want to move into a furnished house of mine for these reasons:Fully stocked traditional kitchen you would find in a house.Laundry room with a washer and dryer.Living room with cable/wifi/streaming HDTV.Your own bedroom with tasteful paintings of T/A.An outdoor grill.It costs less than a motel room.You can also shoot a bow/arrow or pellet gun in the back yard. 

I asked this to someone on BP privately and it seems to be a common misconception, oft repeated that you can't charge your own time.You can charge your time but make sure it's reasonable.

A seemingly obvious, but oft overlooked tool for scouting OOS neighborhoods is Google Earth.

Another investor I know has a fond, oft repeated, saying: There are two types of partnerships:  those that have come to an end and those that will.