I'll probably end up swinging a hammer a lot of days too. 

Our goal is start domestically with fix and flips we can trade up to large apartment buildings while developing a portfolio of vacation rentals in Latin America.

Publicly-traded REITs get you into real estate and are passive.

Complicates the trade to the nth degree.It is possible to pledge a loan as collateral.  

Home Depot would never do that.So I'm sure that's the case with other trades.

You should not expect to see a huge swing in value from one appraiser to the other, if they are done close to the same time (the second appraiser knows this, of course, and would perhaps keep that in the back of their mind). 

You know, that place of which Barack Obama once said: ""They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

We have a local case where a "buyer" is being sued not only for fraud, but also for deceptive trade practices.

Given the shortage of qualified contractors and trades it might take a while for the gap to close.

If I find myself with some extra time in the morning between leaving the house and driving to work, I may swing by and visit a property.