Your goal is to build a passive real estate portfolio (we can discuss what passive means to you), so while I don't condone throwing $100k into a deal without even a basic understanding, alternatively doing so will teach you far more lessons than reading a book will.  

And, voilà, you have your own guide.Problem is what they'll likely want to know will probably be basic and already covered by those guides.

Many investors in syndications ask such basic questions: what's your track record, when do distributions start, and how frequently do you pay distributions.  

While I understand the basic structure of General Partners (GP) and Limited Partners (LP), I was under the impression that GPs always had to put 'skin in the game.'

That's basically what I used propstream for the most and if I can pay 100 a month for resimpli and get those features and also the crm and accounting features I'd be happy. 

While technically business purpose loans, these will still basically be 30yr (or whatever tenor) fixed rate mortgages.

Use tools like the VA loan for house hacking and your Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) to cover living costs while building equity.

Money left over should be placed in reserves until you have an appropriate safety net for your particular portfolio.

Security is too basic and important an issue for the technology to fail.

The important thing to know is that you basically have to meet all of the qualification criteria for a typical commercial real estate loan from a bank -- EXCEPT for the down payment requirement.