REIA groups are going to be full of wannabees and possibly hard to weed out if you are a novice. 

I'm definitely a novice investor so I'm trying to avoid both ends of the pendulum.  

My name is Rodney Dixon and I'm a novice real estate investor.

I feel like I am dealing with children but that may be just as much my fault as theirs as I am an extreme novice in this.

Sorry for the long winded response, but those are my novice thoughts.

As a Novice you may want to consider both.

IMO, the best way to approach investors and lenders is appraoching those who fall in two categories:Those with money who have already made real estate loand; andThose with money who have never made a real estate loan.Yes, they have something in common, but these are two distinct groups, the cheapest money will come from the novice.

Something like that can take a long time to find when you are a novice at finding that stuff like me.I need to get going on this project soon.Actually visiting my son out at USAFA now so I am in your neck of the woods Jon.Thanks againChris

It's a really high price market and I think you'll have a lot of difficulty finding anything that works out even remotely close to the "rules" but, in my novice opinion, you have to find a deal that works for you.

What did you mean by 20-25% down payment is going to be destroying inflation over the next 30 years/I'm just a part time novice investor and have no rehab experience, so i am looking for properties that would be more turn key with minimal fixing.Arthur, what you mentioned is sort of my arbitrage strategy.