Have you considered that the Fed's printing money like water to buy our Federal Debt is really just a hidden tax on all citizens who try to save Dollars or expect the real value of their rentals to appreciate?

Rather than a 30% or 50% or greater hidden narkup. 

In the next few years, I hope to be able to start investing in real estate (buy and hold, multis), and in the next couple of year I will probably be purchasing a new personal residence. It occurred to me that I may be...

The business seems much larger, since there is 17 locations in the area and was told there are thousands of offices nationwide...Commission:level 1: $0-$25k 60%level 2: $25k-50k 65%level 3: 50k-70k 70%level 4: 70k-100k 75%level 5: 100k-150k 80%level 6: 150k-175k 85%Level 7: 175k +     90%Fees:$300/yr, E/O insurance$100, new agent setup fee$75/mth, marketing fee$72/per 1000 business cards$18/per name badge$225, FAR/NAR Membership initiation fee$460/yr FAR/NAR annual membership dues$90, MLS setup fee$350/yr MLS annual membership dues$50, supra key setup fee$275/yr, Supra key annual membership dues$110, lockbox purchaseFlorida Luxury Realty from the beginning was kinda hidden off the road, the office is hidden in the back of a business complex in regards to the one office i specifically went to, its very clean and professional looking, just the office overall is not very lit up or fresh looking...and when i dropped in there was noone at the location outside of the clerical person at the front desk from what i could tell, most of the office was completely dark...

Only to find he had been a member for only a couple of days and his contact info was hidden.

There are hidden costs in all strategies in real estate.

There can definitely be some hidden jewel neighborhoods in East Cleveland.

Please don't do this, but if you are an agent you need to be aware in order to protect your sellers from such strategies. 2)The visionary way can be summed up in 2 words: hidden value.

That means find a house where there aren't going to be any hidden issues with very expensive things (i.e. foundation, roof, mechanicals), and get a good inspector to make sure they agree with your assessment before buying.

I found a couple gems of neighborhoods that surprised my agent, and we definitely looked at a lot of random properties.