.- Maintain proper records, such as contracts, settlement statements, and promissory notes.- Additionally, you can track income and expenses consistently using software or spreadsheets.If you track everything, you could show a loss and use that to offset other earned income (such as a W2) which will net you a bigger refund.

Successful individuals must learn to accept uncertainty, maintain a flexible mindset, and continue to invest.

This allows them to get more capital so they can make more loans without having to grow their asset base, while also maintaining their relationship with the customer through monthly payments.

Actually the IRS does not tell us what we can invest in, only what is disallowed (life insurance contracts and collectibles).Allowable investments for SDIRA investing include the following:Residential real estate, including: apartments, single family homes, and duplexesCommercial real estate Undeveloped or raw landREITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts)Real estate notes (mortgages and deeds of trusts)Promissory notes Private limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and C corporationsTax lien certificatesOil and gas investmentsPrivate stock offerings, private placementsJudgments/structured settlementsGold bullion Factoring investments

Indeed, you can get higher returns than that in the stock market at the click of a mouse and, when investing internationally, you'd typically want a higher return than you can get domestically or in the stock market, unless you're mainly looking for diversification or parking your money.On another unrelated note, I love your latest podcast episode.

I have been cautious about raising rents as I try to maintain goodwill with the tenants.

Thoughtful extras, such as welcome baskets or well-stocked kitchens with basic spices, can make a stay memorable.

To me, if you aren't at least maintaining 0 cash flow, you're betting too much on appreciation to the investment work. 

@David Putz I wonder if someone is maintaining a list of where all the servicers are licensed...I can't imagine that would be easy to keep track of, but I don't know how often they would change.Having a resource that has all the typical fee info and service states for each servicer in one document would be amazing.

I've been looking at NC and GA recently, trying to find some entry level and easy to maintain property, but there are too many areas and it's really hard to narrow down.