I am actively working on raising my credit score and my personal savings so that I can get a head start on financing.

Do we need to go ahead and get a real estate attorney? 

Jan Styrczula - I got excited to work with someone and I decided to go ahead before signing clear contracts with a lawyer (just did a letter of intent highlighting the basic terms).

You want to play with fire, go ahead and play with fire.

@Jay Legaspi I think a partnership is a great idea, just make sure whatever arrangement you make is as clearly defined as possible and written out ahead of time- and everyone agrees to it.I started with single family, and I'd advise that route too.

@Matt EngleThank you for response, my goal is to reach financial freedom In the shortest time possible by using real estate as an investment vehicle, having the ability to be flexible and live the life I want and be around my family as much as possible, support my parents/famil y and build a community in my native country of Zimbabwe.

Go ahead and call me a left winger (I am), but I think we need good regulations which are actually enforced in order to not have the most powerful entities take advantage of individuals.Yes, I am glad I that in my case I only lost money on the due diligence. 

Even if I cant find the other 2 children.Do I have the right to go ahead and fix the property and rent it out.

But if they don’t buy, you keep their payments and put it on the market for another lease option and you are ahead because you will have their option payment as well as rents collected over the 2 or 5 years. 

Most conventional loans take 30-45 days, because of bureaucracy and legislated steps, see if they can move faster if you submit your docs ahead of time and just give them your current pay stubs when you are ready.