My previous background was financial and derivative trading (in London).

A good friend of mine is in finance -- trader/equity analyst at a prominent broker/dealer -- and he's able to derive all kinds of economic information from the Census/Labor stats.Hope that helps.Anthony

The words in the title say primer, fear-managing because it's in advance of larger RE transactions.We can certainly talk about "expertise" because in all sectors (especially in RE) this can be perverted by financial incentive.Ex: 85% of what was later termed "worthless" derivatives and etc by reputible agencies (Moody's) had a rating of AAA.Another noteworthy point is the "underwater" nature of a large chunk of car loans.

everyday you read about people like donald trump and how they bought their next great deal for millions of dollars. the only thing you can derive from that is " it takes money to make money". that statement is true enough, but it isn't the whole answer. no one ever got anywhere by giving up, is one of my favorite quotes. having good credit and access to money is almost essential to investing in real estate. what you need to do is stop worrying about where you are in life and start thinking about how you can get where you want to be in life. i have actually bought a house for $500 once. in fact, i have purchased several houses over the last 11 years here in buffalo, ny and the most i have paid for one was $4100. most of what i buy are tax sale houses, i. e., houses that have been foreclosed on by local tax authorities for lack of paying property taxes. granted, most of these houses are in such a state of disrepair that they probably should be burned down and started over, but buying this way teaches you how to become one hell of a great handyman. start getting your credit in order. you hear a lot about these " credit repair" companies all around. the truth is,  THEY CANNOT DO ANYTHING FOR YOU THAT YOU CANNOT DO FOR YOURSELF. go to annualcreditreport.com and get a free copy of your credit report from all 3 agencies. by law, you are entitled to a free report each year from each company. on annualcreditreport.com, you can dispute every negative thing you see. thats how these credit repair places do it. they go on here and dispute anything that looks negative. by law, the credit agency has to follow up on your dispute to any and all creditors that you dispute. these creditors have 30 days to respond back to the agency as to whether or not this report is accurate. if they fail to answer back in 30 days, then that part of the report is removed from your report, just as if it never existed. hence, your credit score goes up and you become more desirable to  lenders. 

The percentages are fun to look at, but they are each applicable only to the market in which they are derived, and the asset manager. 

A person's motivation should derive from internal needs (i.e. job fulfillment, life satisfaction, or educational accomplishments).

You can choose to diversify your retirement savings into real estate, but everything must be done at arm's length and you may not derive any income personally.  

At some point it will make sense to go with a property manager, but right now it's doable, enjoyable, and we are still deriving value from learning: - DAILY: About 5-10 minutes per property with individual inquiries and sending standardized guest responses.  

For us, we recognize all the benefits that real estate has to offer, (sheltering income from income tax, elimination of capital gains etc....) it is my belief that you have to find somebody who understands all these benefits and can apply them in your situation to get you the benefits that can be derived from real estate, regardless of where they are!!

Your gain is derived from the risk premium.