I just re-read @Karen Margrave 's post, and I think in retrospect she was asking me to talk about different ways to lend, as opposed to different ways to supply funds with a particular investor.

In retro spect just another reason the shady company is no loner around and many of our district managers were indicted.

I feel quite foolish in retrospect, if I had only hired a home inspector, I could be enjoying my "dong" right now, instead of trying to come up with $40 to satisfy my urgent need for a "dong".

And yes, in retrospect, an inconspicuous safe was probably a much better idea

In Milwaukee, where we use a real estate agent, we're closer to 85% -- part of that is that we missed some deadlines and had to list at less opportune times, but a big part (in retrospect) is that our agent was overly optimistic with values.

Time to meet with a professional appraiser and have a retrospective appraisal done for the date you converted to rental.

I was a stress monkey and in retrospect annoyed the hell out of the promoter that exposed me to that deal.It was also a terrific learning experience, and we built a really cool 3/2 that is now about 5 years old. 

I have also heard them say in retrospect they wish they had started from the beginning or at least sooner with 50 to 100+ unit complexes.If you had to start all over again from scratch which road would you choose and what would your strategy be? 

This seemed like a good idea and maybe it will be useful for others starting out, but it’s mostly to distill my own thoughts on what I did before.Investment #2 – The SFH “Ugly” HUD Home.After my adventure started going south with the MH (http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/137346-my-first-investment-retrospective) I decided I still wanted to keep pursuing REI and learn more but I was convinced that I couldn’t trust anyone to do it for me so I needed to do it myself!

I don't do "first come, first served" so there is no reason for anyone to rush their application with us.My best tenants had "others to view" which, in retrospect, might be an indicator that they are a quality tenant.