One of their so called instructors from one of the training sessions asks the students to go to the five star hotels, or go play golf, or go horse riding, or go hang out at the high end night clubs for the sake of fund raising.

Real estate syndication investing is still quite valuable as it can offer higher Returns than investing in public REITs but not as high returns as direct ownership and management of real estate by some experienced people, but with the benefit of being far more passive, than direct ownership/management. 

That gets worse as you get farther out of the cityTLDR: values depreciate, inflation has gone basically nowhere in Japan for a long time, the supply of housing is pretty good compared to demand (unlike the US) and that's because of flexibility with rezoning and development, taxes on rental income are high. 

also we do not know what is going to happen with int rates, they are very high now, the economy is not good and it is not certain they will be coming down this year. we know there will be more responsible gov spending, so maybe rates will come down, no way to know...I think you need to know the market where you plan to buy well, and go from thereBest of luck

Speak with lenders early to understand your borrowing power, and explore multifamily properties to maximize your house-hacking potential.

While opportunities still exist, I think they are still rare with interest rates and property values high.  

Much better as a short term acquisition strategy for flips IMO but always a high-risk strategy that should not be practiced by anyone who doesn't have the liquid capital to pay off the loan if needed.

However, I had to subordinate the sellers note to 2nd position (hint: set up that language in advance to streamline the process, if that's the direction you're going to go).Since the ARV was high enough, and the potential income would support the mortgage and expenses, it all worked out. 

I have never been shy of facing challenges and I truly believe knowledge is power (something my grandfather taught me at a young age)I really want to learn everything there is to learn about realestate and am driven and hungry.Thanks in advance for any suggestions or recommendations.

I do well, at least enough to go on vacations as a family, put money into high yield savings accounts, max out the ROTHs and add to investments when I can with money saved in savings and checking accounts.