'Hey, the weather is so awesome - I'm going to go fishing today." or "I had a big party last night and can't come in until noon" etc. 

@Chris Armstrong I am tenatively planning a happy hour for Monday June 20, 5:00pm at Charleston Harbor Fish House on Patriots Point in MtP.  

Sorry Leonard I teach people to fish instead of delivering it to their door.You'll be a much stronger investor if you take the time to seek out and nurture these relationships yourself.

The old saying goes - "teach a man how to fish and he will eat for life! 

There will almost certainly be bigger fish to fry and more important issues to negotiate after inspections. 

It maybe have been one of those things that formal companies where using so they didn't need to look as appealing to newbies and small fish. 

I have friends that own subway sandwhich shops they are doing very well its a job but they are building true wealth.I have another friend that has the number one take and bake pizza place in PDX they do very very good.. and talk about free time .. he is always inviting me to go fishing mid week.So I really depends on what you want to do.. but if its just buy a few rentals well that's very vanilla and should not be any big blow back from others.. now if you telling them you want to give up your income and jump into RE as a newbie then you should defiantly head the advice of others.. because this business in Certain markets is not realistic to go from nothing to self sustaining in any short amount of time unless your already starting with significant capital behind you.Now there are areas of the US were properties are so Cheap you can start with credit cards.. but those are very management intense situations and defiantly not for all

Does the Walmart cashier with neon green hair tattoos and fish hooks in her lips feel bad if your card doesn’t work at the checkout ?

Remember to fish when fish are biting and keep the faith!

I've seen other advertisements fishing for "Premises Liability" suits - after violations are issued to a property they reach out to the tenants to see if they have been harmed by the supposedly "dangerous" living conditions.BUT - that's no reason to spend thousands "protecting" yourself in my opinion.