I learned a lot, not only about real estate, but about a variation of poker called "Up the River, Down the River."

To me, in REI, the is the definition of hope.REI is a lot like playing poker.  

I should have never been approved for the loan (21 year old in college with "poker" income), but luckily all is well with the property and it still provides good cash flow to this day.I will try to make this sound as least salesy as possible (you can see my Marketplace ad for the sales pitch =p).  

@David KrulacI think true investjng is finding problems and offering solutions and making money using many creative tools.Low level Investing is paying retail, 20% down, non portfolio lenders, obeying conservative bankers, having no reserves puts panic in your lives and many sleepless nights.Gordon Gecko (Wall Street) could not buy Blue Star Airlines without his 72 million in poker chips so he could break it up and sell off the pieces.Gordon Gekko: "The most valuable commodity I know of is information."

It's not possible to save a dollar on fees or monthly payments if you don't get into contract - in that case, the interest rate is 0%, monthly payments are $0, and loan balance is $0, so you do literally have the best possible mortgage at all, but the downside is that you do not own a home.You get 5 cards when you play poker.

I have been playing the Rich Dad Cashflow game.

I'll do team bonding every other month or so where we get on video and play some kind of game - the JackBox gamers are our favorite.For accountability, mostly trackers.

If you want to watch the full presentation you can do so on my company webpage, but the highlights are this:RE Lenders require collateralRE Lenders require "Skin-in-the-game"RE Lenders ALWAYS mitigate risks, the primary way they do this, require more "skin-in-the-game" from the borrowerIf you ever find a "lender" that uses a "free" email service this should be a huge red flag. 

Lastly, most poker players have a saying "don't throw good money after bad". 

I don't shoot to totally eliminate my tax liability by affirmatively attempting to lose money, that's a fools game.