Tom Wheelwright's book, Tax Free Wealth, is a good start for general tax info. 

"its a real business might not support it self day one with zero equity in it.. but its real and those that buy those assets are the ones that get wealthy .. far more than those that buy assets that do not appreciate or if they do very little but collect a few bucks a month which you know what happens to that it gets pissed away .

If you start off wealthy you need to start off with strong asset protection. 

But I don't live in those areas, and I don't know the culture.

I am interested in becoming a real estate investor to build wealth. I

I am well traveled and very culturally experienced and am a dedicated sales and marketing professional who exceeds goals, retains customers and maintains a strong reputation for customer satisfaction.With all that said, I am looking to understand the US market for both professional and personal reasons. 

And that one risk, is the same one that landed me a job with a local investment bank when I penned a letter directly to the chairman of the board ripping apart his old school view on education after an interview that aired on public television.April 2010: After rising thru the ranks at the bank, I realized the investment banking culture was too cutthroat, and simply not right for me. 

Avoid anything that takes your money with promises that "they" will make you wealthy.  

That's where real wealth is built.  

At this point, I am prepared to invest $30-40k for a downpayment and torn between and still learning about 3 options - rehab/flip in San Diego, turnkey cashflow investment in Chicago/Indiana, Out of state rehab/flip.This is really an incredible forum looking at the "ready to share knowledge" culture which further emphasizes in my mind that real estate is really not a zero sum game...I look forward to connecting with folks here...