Auctions have a way of giving people the illusion that they are getting a great deal when they may not be.

Sometimes you need to create the illusion for the buyers because not everyone has the same ability to see themselves living in the space (also if you can afford, a little staging would definitely help out some of these spaces).Also, although the landscaping looks cute, the rest looks blah...

However, the more I learn,  I realize just how lucrative real estate investment can be, but I'm under no illusions that it is easy or without risk.

@Brian Tisler term leases are an illusion of security.

What your gut is reacting to is an illusion created by the applicant not a true reality.

I'll invest in lower areas if i'm presented with a bargain, but am under no illusion that when that property is sold in 20 years, I'm getting no more than I paid for it.

Note I have no illusion that this path will create returns close to equivalent of what I used to be able to achieve via brrrr (I have infinite return on most of my existing portfolio) 2) sophisticated partition via coop/Tic and maybe CA SB9 on my OO.  

The one-off turned into many one-offs and most important thing I learned from that was how utterly clueless those guys were in just about everything, which shattered my false concept that all investors have some secret-sauce, that i needed that illusive treasure map, no, these were clueless idgets they just simply were fearless to try.

Two separate things.Lastly, you say there is no such thing as the Attorney app, however, I am not the only one in CI community who viewed a webinar celebrating the Attorney app and the Insurance app and wondering where these illusive apps are.

It is an illusion, You are all being brainwashed.