The one common theme we keep finding is savings (of course), investing (duh.), and flipping real estate (...whaa?).

@Shiva Bhaskar - I understand where you are coming from on the house as an investment theme, but I have to somewhat disagree. 

STR's near the theme parks and military bases tend to do well, especially with pools.

The above 4 items are just the largest of many errors in the appraisal but the common theme is that all the errors (minor and major, both substantive to the final value and not) indicate an inaccurate report based on out-dated information that leads to performing a grossly negligent assignment. 

People thought I was nuts (can you tell that there's a theme here lol), because most investors wouldn't set foot in the neighborhood.

I appreciate the analysis, but you are commenting on a line inside a 100 post thread and missing the theme about what the value means in this context.Account Closed totally fair points and the Bro Investor does not affect me at all.

The common theme is that partners' goals should line up as closely as possible. 

The overall theme of this thread is whether one should spend any money at all on a mentor.90% or more of these deals go through brokers one way or another.. if the 20k is to learn how to buy off market and you are not using a broker well then yes its cheap.. but there is no mystery to this.. 

In my area around Disney World, the ones that rent the most with the highest nightly rates are generally the ones that are either new or upgraded offering a lot of fun amenities like themed kids bedrooms, video games, game rooms and movie theaters. 

Not losing your spot on the compound curve, or put another way, letting your money work in 2 places at once is a central theme with this vehicle.