@Brian Burke - it's not quite upside down in a airplane, but we are getting out kicks.

You can't learn to fly an airplane by asking a few basic questions of experienced pilots and you can't learn to invest in real estate by asking a few basic questions of experienced investors on BP.  

The airplane and syndication analogy helped me when I was getting started. 

I completely lucked into the deal by being in the right place at the right time and talking to the person sitting next to me on an airplane who happened to be a RE agent...So fast forward to today and I want to purchase my second property and I'm having a really hard time finding a good deal.

And now I have to go to work and fly some airplanes for real.

It's kind of an expensive airplane ticket.3) Other ways to tap equity from the condo?

Of course they are (and Gravity is the leading cause of airplane crashes too).But adding a few days to the process isn't going to solve that.Homelessness is caused by people not having a "Safety Net" in their personal lives, and by having borderline or no income.And by Section 8 not taking care of them in a timely manner, or at all.

Reese you just added what those of us that fly little airplanes call an addition to our experience bucket like not flying through violent weather LOLwe do a lot of buying at on line auctions.. there is always a deposit.. many times a deposit of 2500 just to make the bid..So not sure how information got out there that no EM was needed.now some areas in these low value assets folks use 10 bucks and such..Anyway.. on larger deals we buy that are over 100k to 200k we usually have to put up 5 to 10k.. as EM now for me I like that keeps the wholesalers at bay.. and evens the playing field your not competing against folks that cant perform .now you know be ready next time.. 

same concept instead of story stuff.you store your airplane..

I built and fly a small experimental airplane, fish off shore in my kayak, and my new hobby is kite boarding.