Have you read the free book on here, Beginners Guide ?

A good way to begin maximizing BP is to read the Bigger Pockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing as Josh and Brandon did a great job with it.

Follow below as a foundation.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthereCheck out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

Build you foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthereCheck out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

It still amazes me how I can get professional and valuable advice in minutes.

I think it is more of a guide myself.

They have been extremely valuable in providing us insight into the neighborhoods, the hotter markets, the type and materials of rehabs that are selling; as well as knowledge in the requirements of the flip needed for the buyers to qualify.

If you pick the right person you could get a lot of very valuable knowledge from such a deal.Good luck!

I do recommend checking out out Free Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing which I think will be of help to you, and as others have said, our Podcast and Blog are also invaluable tools along with the forums.Good luck.

So the lesson learned here is to find a bank that is knowledgable in loans and has worked with short sales and foreclosures or you could waste valuable time.