You don't have to take the loan.2) Divorce yourself from the notion that money can be made in real estate with little or no work.

It was more early 90's misguided romantic notions fueled by Northern Exposure/Jack London that brought me here....

The better you can convey the notion that you’re a pro with everything in the world going for them, the better they’ll appreciate that they’re talking to a real mover and shaker and not some corpse stuffed into a cubicle somewhere in a call center.Divert the conversation into something personal.

Therefore I use these notions when I went to buy my first investment.

We're a small firm with a unique marketing plan, a highly dedicated group of agents, and don't come with any of the per-conceived notions buyers might have of other companies". 

If not I didn't do one.I sense that the largest reason for your distaste of the 1031 is the notion you raise that you're paying tax on tax and a higher tax with the 1031 when you finally sell without a 1031 since you are taxed on rental income and then the part of that income that went to principle pay down is taxed again.

@Brandon Connell As an INTJ myself, I am TOTALLY on board with your notion toward virtual wholesaling.

A Profit and Loss report broken up by Quickbooks class (each property and investment stream is a class)The best thing I ever did was start doing daily accrual-based accounting - for me, having those numbers in front of me and challenging myself to overachieve keeps me focused.I have a vague notion of keeping risk in mind with these things, but I could improve by somehow modeling the amount of risk I'm taking (kinda like alpha in the equity markets).

The notion of buy some rentals and travel the world is just one of these things: too good to be true.For some context: I have been investing in Milwaukee for almost 15 years and have seen this play out in real time.

I subscribe to the notion that you should only insure on things that you can't afford to take a loss on.