I spoke with an investor in DFW the other day who was talking about her current strategy of reinstating loans out of foreclosure, and another in Austin who laid out his business plan of buying properties with large lots, building an ADU in the back, completing a condo conversion for the lot and then selling each unit individually (in effect, a short cut to subdividing the lot).

These are a few of the shortcuts I have learned over the years:1)Roofing: The tab on a 3 tab shingle is 12" wide and has a 5" exposure.

There's sloppy work and haphazard practices.I became a broker for three reasons. 

The survival of one of the nation's largest non-bank mortgage servicing companies was thrown into question Thursday as the company was hit with federal and state lawsuits for allegedly failing borrowers with mistakes, shortcuts and other problems that cost some people their homes.Ocwen Financial Corporation allegedly botched basic functions such as sending accurate monthly mortgage statements, properly crediting borrowers' payments and handling taxes and insurance, according to a lawsuit filed in a Florida federal court by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.The CFPB also accused the company, based in West Palm Beach of improperly foreclosing on struggling borrowers, ignoring complaints and selling servicing rights to mortgage loans without fully disclosing mistakes the company and its subsidiaries made in borrowers' records.Read full article here...

Don’t fall into a trap of poor decision-making because you are looking for shortcuts to compensate for a dwindling bank account balance.

You can't haphazardly jump into this arena. 

Don't take shortcuts or the easy road.

On the other hand I don't want to dive in haphazardly being so new to all the intricacies and make bad choices and deals.

It involves a combination of cost to get in, profits made when you exit (through flipping or holding), based on groups of common (apples to apples) properties within a short distance of eachother that establish end value, list prices available, costs in addition to purchase price (like rehab), and the big one...what all of this establishes as your potential profit.It appears as though what you are looking for is a quick method (short cut) to find a market to invest in so you can close within 90 days. 

Don't take any screening short cuts just because they are offering to pay more in advance.