I think I understood where Curt was coming from.

From what I understood, land contracts on properties owned by hard money lenders that had to take the properties back since the previous investor defaulted...!!!

I'll have my due diligence well along, as well as understood the nuances of commercial lending from meeting with a few banks.

Bill, after reading those links, you should have the basics about them.But such rules are hardly "rules" something that is a rule, like don't ever fire your deer rifle toward a house, something that should always be followed, these are not those kinds of rules, let's say good suggestions, a quick way to view a deal without cranking out real numbers.IMO, you should never buy a property based soley on any rules but rather look at financials, the market, tax matters and condition more closely.Don't let numbers scare you, RE math is not hard, but the approach you take needs to be understood.

I understood everything (visible) that needed to be done...much of which I've done before on my own homes.

Thanks Roy, understood if I were to invest in France, but we don't have that here, it certainly gives a kick in the income. :)

I had taken a HELOC on my primary to start my journey into REI but understood early the advantage of leverage.

around day 14 or so i text him telling him we need to remove his junk off the property in a couple weeks as we're going to get a trash hauler to remove any junk he leaves behind (he understood that we'd take that off his deposit). 

One thing I never understood is why are people using payment services like this instead of a large known company like paypal or google wallet, both of which are options I use to collect rent with.

But I understood what I was doing better than 95% of the people I knew.