Being creative in deal making involves many skills.

He also emailed out some of his slides, spreadsheets and documents with us so we have the details to hand.I thoroughly learned all the math to buy a good deal: maximum allowable purchase price, cost per unit, gross rent multiplier, net operating income, cap rate, debt service rule of thumb (.007), profit per unit, cash on cash return, coverage ratio and expenses rule of thumb percentages.I learned questions to ask a broker, the order to do things (check math before offering, confirming expenses before viewing property), how to use hard money lenders, negotiating with vendors and dealing with their objections, using vendor take back strategies, what to do in due diligence (everything), a list of clauses with how they benefit the purchaser and how to negotiate with them, how to stack the clauses, strategies for becoming a RE entrepreneur, ideas for creative financing, how to do no money down deals, how to make offers, what types of exit strategies affect the negotiations and more.I haven't spent much time on this site yet so this is probably covered along with lots more.

Consider trying creative strategies to buy real estate, such as lease purchase and/or subject to's, where you don't need to use your credit....

You seem to be calling in all the reserves you have but you might need to think creatively, family , close relationship, social organizations to get you through the holiday.

I have to get creative or bring a sludge hammer.

Over time, brokers became regulated making their operations more expensive squeezing them out or forcing them to grow to more profitable levels and getting more creative.

I look forward to when my business school asks me for money again and i will ask them if they incorporated any of that "dirty, boring, not really investing" real estate investing into the curriculum yet.

Once you learn to Network and realize those 'competitors' can often be your best customers or point you to other resources, you really get a leg up on becoming a creative investor.Houston is a HUGE, spread out Metro area so there is no way I'm driving 2.5 hours or more with traffic to go see a house on the other side of town when I can partner with someone I know who works that area and let them do part of the work.  

There are reasons other than liability concerns for placing properties into incorporated entities [Note: I cannot speak to LLCs specifically as I have no experience with them].

We did the Articles of incorporation, Operating Agreement, filing, etc ourselves, BUT (and it's a big but), before we filed, we ran it through a lawyer who charged us $150 just to browse over it and make sure it all looked good.