The SEC claims Fossum misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars from the funds by living rent-free in a fund-owned home and having the funds pay for extensive international travel and his federal taxes.

you are competing against other investors spending thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on marketing every month. 

If I had ten thousand liquid cash to spend, I'd probably do a house hack two-family and obtain an FHA loan with only 3.5% down. 

Car would have cost $38,000 rounded up to the next thousand.

So much so that it would be difficult to make even a dent in the need by opening thousands of homes.When done right, these are high cash flowing homes.

Make a contingent that the XX amount on the Cashiers check or wire will be used from the home owner to pay off the net pay off mortgage and then buy the house for a thousand bucks or something in that order.

Make sure you know what it's like to be an Agent before you spend thousands of dollars on MLS fees etc.. 

But, I do feel bad for the students, since they are the ones that typically don't have the money to lose, but also get suckered by gurus that they can make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, by investing in real estate.

and you need to be ready for rough turnovers - potentially spending a couple thousand dollars every time a tenant leaves. 

From talking to locals, there's a couple of issues than need to be addressed, some are the non-ecological practices that some of those developers have, unfortunately, our government profits from this investors and allows them to destroy manglers (which are the natural water purifying system of that area) dismantling hectares of mangroves and degraded the habitat of resident and migratory species burying animals alive.There's proof of fecal material floating beneath the city of Tulum, only 20% of the water is sent to the water treatment plant, there's no infrastructure for the exponential growth.The landfills in the middle of the jungle that is leaking hazardous pollutants into the freshwater system and that something that developers won't tell you.I love my country and it would be a disaster for everybody if this place ends up like some other great beaches around the world, that are completely ruined by greedy investors not following the rules.There's no urban or comprehensive master plan, and one of the risks is that Tulum will be like Playa del Carmen is today, overgrown and with environmental devastation.I will advise doing a lot of research before getting something in Tulum, different country, different rules, and practices.