@Sam Kensinger- thanks   1)  is it possible to  ask a relative that  has  dcent  credit and income  to help you  by  being a  " co signor " /  " co borrower " ?     

, meaning your property would need to be insured to at least 80% of replacement value at the time of the loss to not incur a co-insurance penalty.

Nowadays, water run about $100/month per apartment, and even here, for $50K it's not worth it, particularly if I have no problems to begin with.On the other hand, for a side by side duplex, the cost of re doing the plumbing may be minimal.I looked into separating gas charges for a co-worker, who rents an apartment, and the landlord splits the monthly $30.00 cooking gas bill with him.

Two of them are in the same REIA as me, and one is the organizer (I'm a co-organizer).Here is my criteria for deciding if a realtor is investor friendly:1 - Is he/she HUD certified (if the answer is "no", no need to go any further).  

@Keith A. Co

Gosh, now I think I get what George was saying, I believe he is looking at the tenant as having a co signer?

Could be a Co-GP or LP to learn the ropes, depending on how active you want to be.Small Business Acquisitions - find some small/mid size businesses to buy that generate higher cash flow + biz owner benefits.Keep some cash on hand for potential opportunities. 

I’ve thought about using a family member as a co-borrower. 

I personally have a lot of development experience including over 100mw's of operational solar and a pipeline of over 600 more but I act/acted as a co-developer and my partner/co-development companies always took care of the financing.

Today I had a co-worker who told me he's been meaning to speak to me and he is very interested in what I'm doing in real estate.