Since I would be reactivating my license, I believe I can use my old book, pay $100 for the test, $3-400 for mls fees, a few hundred if that for a couple catch-up continuing ed. classes, and I'll be off to the races.Lynn, yes I agree, there are many homes that aren't very appealing.

Many people suffer from Analysis Paralysis as they aren't comfortable with the numbers.

Or are there much smaller regional REITs that aren't publicly traded that I could become involved in?

Me and my wife are creating our own llc to put it under and want to start investing but aren't quite sure where to begin.

We actually aren't huge fans of Sub-2's at the real alliance, not that we don't agree you can do them.  

As long as you aren't forcing deals just to buy more, you are going to be fine either way.

Most will sell out, they want the money now, not the headaches to get more later and many realize pop's old rentals aren't going to appreciate.Another issue, properties in a trust can be expensive to administer since trust accounting can require market value assessments for accounting purposes, meaning appraisals, not book value or guesstimates.

Obviously you will have to use smaller furniture to make it appear that the bedroom sizes aren't as small as they actually are but the staging company should know how to do that for you.If I'm wrong and the bedroom sizes are spacious I would still advise to stage it but it's not as necessary as the first example.

Most commercial listings aren't on the MLS.

I know that gets a lot of people since many people aren't aware of the "experienced landlord" guideline so thanks for pointing it out since I failed to mention it.