@Paul McCormick Jr  I've recently started documenting the condition of the house via an email exchange with the tenants.

You may need to come out of pocket from time to time when things get tight so it isn't gonna provide you with the cash flow to retire anytime soon but it will likely over time provide you with equity that you can cash out, tax free, to buy additional properties or live off of in the future.Even if you do not want to keep the condo long-term, put a tenant in there for the next year and then spend that year researching deals closer to your new home and in a year, you could be in a position to do a 1031 exchange into a new property closer to home that has the investment parameters that you want.

In my case I had a good handyman and bartered free rent in exchange for his work.

@Shurrone Jordan  I currently have 8 town homes in a community with an HOA which I purchased as part of a 1031 Tax Exchange.  

The information you need to do this on your own is at your fingertips online; it just depends on whether you are willing to get a little uncomfortable in exchange for the discount on the property.

I would like to have some sort of mentor that I can help in exchange for knowledge, and somebody that I can just ask questions to and talk with.I have been seeing across the entire city and suburbs these small road signs that advertise "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice" they are all different, and some of them even make wild promises like "make $10,000 a week while you learn to invest!"

Hi Chad,I'm a local Ventura investor who recently went through the process of building an ADU+JADU in midtown and would love to get in touch with you and exchange notes. 

Without going into the weeds on the 'why', Last summer I quit claim'd a non-performing rental (Mayflower) taken Sub2 (with a basis of $65k) back to the original seller, in exchange for them forgiving $42k in notes for 4 other properties purchased from them, due to them in 2020.

@Mike H.I can easily imagine a situation where it's predatory lending even if they just charge extra rent in exchange for the option. 

Maybe the DOJ should complain about mandatory minimum sentences and the war on non-violent, voluntary exchange of money for drugs.