I've had several friends of mine pool their equity together in order to get their hat in the game.

I have been using deal machine, and it has pretty extensive contact info on each property.

They promise you’ll ‘get rich quick’Real estate investing and wealth building is a very long-term game that comes with a lot of risk and often requires a significant financial investment.

It is about the long-game. 

I've used deal machine and PropStream before and don't "love" either.

An experienced local investor with "skin in the game" would be someone I would more easily trust to define what works needs to be done.

Don’t try to help anyone unless they approach you and out skin in the game.  

Reason for keeping it is to keep skin in the game in case we want to relocate back to our hometown (wife likes the security).

Lenders will want to know you have a game plan for monitoring a project and being on site frequently especially when it is your first time.

What's your game day/weekend markup?