As for friends, man I would love to do the whole thing and be around my friends but I'm gonna have to side with Neil on this one, I think the risks outweigh the rewards but I appreciate your insight!! 

Keep in mind that cheaper is not always better; sometimes the speed of funding will outweigh points. 

I've been interested in getting into real estate and think my mom's house would be a good start (it has over an acre of land, in a good neighborhood and fixing it up won't outweigh profit, if I ever wanted to sell it).

It's great during summer but the expenses outweighed any profit.

You need to assess the return you will be given on the new property to see if it the new returns outweigh the new debt.

Balance it out, does the bad outweigh the good?

Doing the right thing will always outweigh the few thousand more you'll make on one deal. 

On a $200k house at 4% interest, you'd be missing out on an 8k deduction, which would likely outweigh the cost of the higher interest rate associated with a rental property. 

There are some well intended, and ethical wholesalers out there, but the bad ones are starting to far outweigh the good ones. 

The only way that would work in my view is if you had a plot in prime location & felt you had a competitive advantage in a niche (A+ luxury, student housing in dinky town, etc), otherwise the price and difficulty of building would far outweigh your profit.