A friend approached me to help him with a property he inherited from his mom passing where a developer wanted to buy from him for commercial development.The developer after me catching everything in the contract to tie up the property with the seller asked me to work with him on the other parcels as he would rather be working with me than against me assembling the properties.Off I went after that for about 3 years in land development and then went into existing investment properties.I did things kamikaze style and figured them out on my own through the school of hard knocks.In your situation if you are focusing on apartments I would do the following.

I have sources at way better terms than that but as J said is personal relationships developed over time.

I still own a real estate company overseas, I used to own a bank, construction company, developments, over 50 properties,(which I've shown him paperwork on) all owned free and clear.

I have several times bought negative cashflow situations because of the property was something i could change into positive cashflow quickly through development or change.

Developers can't get the apartments/dorms up fast enough.

Most of them were just letting me know there was no property to speak of, it was only an empty lot.You can market empty lots to builders and developers.

You’ll have to develop your own perspective, but I feel that you have to establish the foundational basics before you go.

Here's a horror story: I got 50-lots through tax lien foreclosure (year 1997-2002), was going to develop them myself when some investors bought up all the other delinquent liens (1500 liens), and formed an HOA to develop the land . . . it worked out okay at first, I made a good profit selling some finished lots to home-builders, but due to the HOA mismanagement and the economy, I have about $1-million in HOA liens on my lots.

I think if you are investing in real estate, you can still be looking for a quick buck, but you understand things can take some time to develop. compound interest is very powerful and if you are not in it for the long term, you will likely not be too impressedPeople are too emotional and probably log into thier stock market account too often and play off of those emotions. i am no different, but my stock market preference is dollar cost average for the long term. i do this through index funds and mostly retirement accounts. the stock market is at all time highs and while it had a huge crash, most people got scared away. as the stock market returned, people statring talking more about it. as warren buffet says and this goes for any investment. people want to buy clothes, cars, ect.

It also has a hug lot that is attractive for subdivision or future development.