Quote from @Brandon Blackmon: @Bruce Woodruff 100% the answer I'm looking.... a solid GC, has a 20-25% markup to I would for sure know going into this that these are private companies and they can set their own fees. 

I also don't like the sardine effect where your just packed in a building, ocean lakes is tight with homes but still feels private at the house(s), golf cart community and 2 min from the ocean on a golf cart where ours are.

Our community is actively identifying and investing in off-market deals, sharing the cost of virtual assistants and direct mail, sponsoring deals, investing our own capital, and having multiple group calls and webinars every week with institutional analysts, real estate and SEC attorneys, regional banks, private lenders, and other experts specifically to discuss and analyze deals within the community.

Establish an emergency fund and target stable long-term rentals or short-term rentals in markets you understand.House hacking or private lending can offer alternative entry points depending on your risk tolerance and hands-on involvement.

There is a lot of information on BP regarding being a private lender and outside groups taht have a lot of support in this space.

Quote from @Collin Luckett: I have a couple houses I’d like to put under contract as fix and flips and would like to you private money lenders to help fund.

If this is not something you're interested in delving into and learning to a high degree, then investing in publicly traded REITs would be another good option for you, which have historically returned about 13.5 per cent Per year over the past 50 years (1977-present), beating the US stock market by two per cent and even beating private real estate investing by 4 per cent (that's compared with the average real estate investor, not the experts here at Bigger Pockets).

I put 20% down using personal and private lending.How did you add value to the deal?

Your question has been debated between BP tax experts both privately and publicly, for example here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/819991-expens...And we ended up where we started: no consensus and no clarity.There have also been court decisions that support my interpretation, even though I personally find these court decisions debatable.

What I was referring to was that I know two private lenders who have the borrower complete the Deed in Lieu documents at the Closing of the initial loan and then hold them in escrow during the life of the loan.