@Patricia FranciulliThat is a good point about the trust issue with contractors, I have asked many investors before about who they use, and most of them hesitate or straight out give me the wrong number, even people here on BP!

@Ned Carey made several good points.You can look at REI like the used car business to try to solve the seller's problem, that is buy cheap as in the "car auction", ORyou can learn all the techniques that work well, like sub2, cfd, wrap, lease option, straight option, etc.You do not need cash to buy/control houses, just a flexible seller and give them choices that benefit them.You do need to be able to present viable solutions to the seller in person, so you need to avoid agents - MLS, and market direct mail - Craigslist for deals direct to the seller.

There is a formula for success with direct response marketing: 1) Target the RIGHT PEOPLE, 2) with the RIGHT MESSAGES, 3) CONSISTENTLY (market to your lists for 6 months straight or don't do it all).

I did a rental on my first deal.I close on one tomorrow that we decided to lease option or straight out seller finance.

I've used smart move numerous times, never had a problem, seemed pretty straight forward.

Another buyer would want to buy it straight out from you, so you couldn't do seller financing (well, you could - but it gets really messy real quick and dangerous for the guy who sold to you.)

Then took on a whole single family house rehabilitation which took 31 days straight to complete, did't sell for two months during which time I redid the siding on my house, new large back deck and quite a few small projects along the way.

I admit, I am fairly new to the Real Estate field, I began maybe 6 months ago with wholesaling, which is pretty straight forward.

Thank you for jumping in there and setting me straight!

So segregation is crucial to keep tax reporting straight.