I walked away discouraged because I didn't even want to pay the lower level cost to become a passive investor (a fraction of the $20K charge for being mentored).

There are lots of resources out there for free or at a fraction of guru's program costs.

IN CA you can fractionalize a Trust Deed.. so it allows someone to get in the game with a low dollar amount..

We did most of our loans as fractional so even though we had multiple investors on each note the investor was named on the note so they could not end up in a huge pool if there was an issue.. in CA you can fractionalize up to 10 investors in one note without doing any securities offering you just need a RE broker ( which I am ) to do your paper work. 

Significantly reducing that expense through RUBS should an easy way to boost the NOI by a healthy fraction of the gross.

.- Engineer based CSS is usually expensive for SFR’s and properties under 1Mil, and IMO, not cost effective – but there are DIY solutions that provide solid alternative for a fraction of the cost (look into KBKG.com – they have a good tool for a very decent price + tutorials, once you get hang of the principle and how to use their calculators, it takes 20min to complete a CSS report) – and that’s the path I recommend. - If you’ll be able to take advantage of the big initial depreciation to shift taxes (to count it against your W2 income) depends on several factors – if your AGI less than 100K, and prorated up to 150K; your profession or if you or your wife can qualify as real estate professional, your documentation – if you maintain contemporaneous logs, etc.).

Pretend you don't have that money and only use a fraction of it. 

.* Try to wholesale the property my friend is getting rid of in Gainesville FL (I am not good at wholesaling)* Pay down bad debt by $10K this year (old credit card debt)* Fractionally roll over 25% of my SDIRA and my wife's SDIRA from a Traditional IRA into a Roth IRA (because income taxes will be going up soon!)

And for a fraction of that! 

It's a great way to get started if you only have 10-20K.You can easily get a property set up for a fraction of your total capital that generates $1,000 per month net.