IF it's too good to be true, then it IS!

They are just partnerships with local teams and the true beneficiaries here are FS and the teams at your expense.

With all the money they had made from the show they bought a few city blocks in the heart of the neglected downtown of Waco, applied their renovation magic to it, and quickly built a beautiful Magnolia campus in the heart of the city.

Is that true ?

What is you guys best ways to find true private lenders not "brokers". 

True off market deals are ones that you find yourself, direct from the seller without a wholesaler or any other middle person involved. 

The same is true for a house—placing a tax-advantaged asset into a tax-advantaged investing account cancels the tax advantages (or many of the immediate ones).Maybe @Michael Plaks or @Kaaren Hall can explain this better or correct my understanding here?

I heard Austin is Beautiful!

sounds like you are on the right track - house hacking or BRRRR to jumpstart the journey is a pretty solid tried and true gameplan

Turned out that the house had been owned by a family who lived there forever and ran a small beauty salon out of the house, so one of the bedrooms had been turned into the hair salon and the dining area turned into a foyer.