They owe you a steak dinner.

1) Work with someone you trust2) Work with someone who knows their stuff3) When you wire money make SURE it's not hijacked from some faked account4) Always get a Title report5) If you don't know what a Title report is, ASK.6) Set realistic expectations7) Put your goals in writing or have someone help you do thatI taught my son at 24 how to buy houses with little down and now he takes me to dinner and actually picks up the tab.

If you wanna spend money to increase your likelihood of success, go take out some GCs to dinner, and start networking!   

Go to dinner tonight and pay with your credit card, guess what, at the end of the night your credit card company is paying that resturaunt cash on you behalf.

We were greatly impressed with several locations (domestic and in Europe) but found that going shopping, taking kids to school, driving or commuting during business hours, street activities after the dinner hour were often not what one would expect. 

Use the weekend make it a family affair brings the kids and wife, do a walk thru with a contractor, that might take an hour or two...If everything looks good, let the realtor get the paper work together, (rather its cash or loan",..Invite the realtor to dinner and sign escrow closing docs right at the dinner table.

Before you do all that ..you guys need to sit down for dinner and spend a couple hours really hashing over what you expect to contribute what you expect to do as normal operating procedures how the money is saved for reserves how it’s spent on capital .what kind of entity your buying it in , what will be the exit strategy or if one person dies or becomes gravely I’ll .

@Kenneth McKeown, another fellow veteran would probably be glad to meet up for lunch or dinner and help you understand the market better and start looking for some properties. 

If anyone is free for breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, drinks (on me, of course) ...

I promised my wife I would only work late 2 days a week so she wasn't stuck with getting dinner ready and kids to bed all by herself all the time.