Piece together a complete picture of this family. 

Lol, every piece of real estate I have touched for last 10 years running, and every stock in my portfolio from the last year. 

I'd put in an orchard with different types of fruit trees, possibly a pool, and one of those large chess boards like what is at Santa Monica Beach, where the board is on the ground, and the chess pieces range anywhere from knee high for a pawn, to chest high for the major pieces.I welcome any advice as I've just started my due diligence period.  

He will be 18 soon and would like to start getting pieces into motion and explore our options. 

I have enough faith in the compound interest that mutual funds offer to commit to a 401k as a piece of my retirement plan.

One huge piece of advise from our experiences - is talk to a local credit union and find a place that can do 5% down conventional (may be a 5 or 7 yr ARM) instead of 3.5% FHA.

I believe the key to it is having a professional mail piece and when you speak to the owner, don't tell them you want to purchase their property at a 10 cap.

@Terrell GarrenThis is a very useful piece of wisdom.

I worked in a lot of markets around the country and I honestly gave up trying to find a pro anywhere, instead I looked for eager young upstarts still wet behind the ear, so I could train them correctly and didn't have to fight with any bad habits already set.

@Catherine Kim I would love to connect and keep in touch, if you don't mind - I just purchased a piece of property in Yucca Valley, and am beginning the process of investigating home builders and contractors.