You could cook your own meal, but you need a recipe, you have to buy ingredients, you need time to prepare it and you need the skills of a chef.

We are also planning to open small take-out only eatery that uses mostlyorganic ingredients in order to provide the community with better food choices - there’s a seriouslack of quality dining options that has only been exacerbated by the recent boom in tourism andvacation rentals.

Distressed properties (on or off market) is an ingredient for the strategy.It's an over hyped approach to investing in today's market but that's my opinion. 

But there are secret ingredients to making the soup.

If you have the requisite down payment, a credit-worthy borrower, and a good property, you have all the ingredients, it might just be that you are not talking to the right lender yet.    

"Analyze 100 deals" - This is a key ingredient for investors and I advice you to slow down, build a spreadsheet or two in excel, and make it simple enough to change the numbers when new deals show up.

Ingredients cost I so charge I (x) y%. 

For example, check out Logan Mohtashami with HousingWire.com.The key ingredient required for any type of correction is a massive increase in supply, and that is not happening.

When getting into REI statistics and averages are ONLY data, they do not translate into results no more then buying a tomatoes translates into a pizza, it is 1 ingredient in the mix that requires ACTIVE work, efforts and actions to create the end result and HOW the process is done has the greatest impact upon output. 

It seems as though "networking" is an essential ingredient to success in this arena.