I didn't have a lot of money- but I could have been smarter about it.

If you want to spend the money, you can split the water. 

I trust my agent but I also would like to be able to verify what they told me was true especially when it cost me more money.

My idea was to establish myself with some paid-off, cash flowing properties to make leveraging them for more investments a lot easier.I'd like to flip some houses to generate some cash, but  even knowing what I know I'm struggling to see how to make money doing so. 

If you have no debt and can save up a bit more money, before getting to the equity loan.

I don't know the rent amount or security deposit amount but if they're not paying, many times they don't have the money.

Question, with loan interest rates at a high currently and cash money sitting in the bank making 4-5%, maybe have your partner do a private loan for 6.5-7% short term until rates comes down??

How can I take this money and put it down on a couple properties and use them to negate the tax obligations? 

He gives off sleazy used car salesman vibes when communicating with him and I worry about giving him any money only to never hear from him again. 

Can I take out a hard money loan for the 43K plus the 40K rehab amount and have him owner finance the rest of the purchase price to me?