I still think developing good relationships with brokers is the best way and will get you the best results quicker than going direct to seller. 

Every investor has their own path, and hearing different perspectives will only enrich your journey.Challenges in Real Estate Investing:Finding deals: In competitive markets, it can be tough to find good deals that make sense financially.Capital and financing: Finding funding, especially as a new investor, can sometimes be challenging.Dealing with tenants: Managing rental properties and dealing with tenants can be tricky, especially with issues like late rent or property damage.Market risk: Real estate markets fluctuate, and external factors (like economic shifts or local development projects) can impact property values.I’d be happy to continue the conversation if you want to dive deeper into any of these topics!

After a while you’ll develop a knack for figuring out who really knows what they are talking about and who is just full of it.Company Websites.

I would talk to some lenders  getting land loans and development loans with no experience is next to impossible starting out.. 

Finding, developing and maintaining a 'brand' is hard and time consuming work.Let me turn the question around; As a seller, why should someone pick one agent over another.

This gives you a foundation for making a fair offer.Secure Financing: Be prepared to show you’re a serious buyer with funding lined up, whether through cash, traditional financing, or a creative option like seller financing.Have a Strategy for Repairs or Development: If the property is distressed, outline how you’ll handle improvements to bring it back to productive use.

Over time, we have developed systems to handle these situations as effectively as possible.

That is just not realistic in this current market.So in my opinion it's important to expose yourself to a large number of deals, so you can develop an intuitive sense of what's reasonable and what's not (and quickly discard the ones that aren't).And it's true that there is no way to 100% protect from fraud (and not just in passive real estate investments but even in public stocks etc.).

And then you can use that information to start to develop your own personal due diligence method: Crowdstreet.com, 1031 Crowdfunding, Akr7, Finresi etc.

While sophistication of your equity partners (private money lenders) will vary between residential and commercial, the principle of raising private capital is the same.You need to develop your own system which allows a constant stream of PML even when you don't need the funds and/or don't have an active deal under contract.For example; I raise private capital by offering free educational workshops for people with self-directed IRAs.