Check it out - http://www.meetup.com/Toledo-Under40-Real-Estate-Meetup/events/223500616/

Obviously, there are several investor groups already in KC, but we developed a meetup.com event more than a year ago with some successes.  

If you want to find events that are going on in your area be sure to check out the Real Estate Events and Happenings area of BiggerPockets.

.- If purchasing and/or improving a property, consult with your CPA on how to mitigate taxable events (for example, if you have to sell stock you own to fund the investment).There are many other questions that could be asked, but given that I do not know much about your situation, I am not sure if they would be relevant.

Since you opened a LLC, you will have to file a personal tax return and a business tax return, so all business expenses should occur within the business to make it cleaner.

With HUD and with FNMA , if damages or vandalism occur after the contact is accepted and prior to closing you have a very good case of getting compensated as I have had it happen many many times

Not that anyone particularly cares, but in the event that someone finds this thread and want's to know how this was resolved, I finally received a deposit in my account today. 

I'm planning on going to the DC REIA event in Maryland tonight.  

With that said, I hopefully people realize that this might be an isolated event. 

It simply spreads those costs out via a premium.In general, insurance is for events that you can't self-insure through.