Sorry I haven't been on, but family health crisis' happened (parents are elderly and unwell).I hope to find a mentor that deals with passive income very, very soon.

Huge pain!

@Jon KlausThe other point to remember is that with an index fund, you're getting alot of diversification; either S&P 500 or even a total market one, and you buy a major cross section of businesses across sectors, that represent the overall health of the economy.With RE, even 10 SFH, it lacks that level of diversification.This can be both good (i.e lets say you bought 10 SFH a few years back in San Francisco; you've got HUGE appreciation and laughing all the way to the bank!)

These are some good questions for uncovering additional pain points that you can use to position yourself as a problem solver:Why hasn't the home sold already? 

The owner is out of state and can't travel due to health reasons.

Same story with the 203K, as I heard that these are a huge pain given FHA/HUB requirements for using properly licensed contractors (which my family members are not btw). 

But it is offering a service to the public that has health and safety issues written all over it.

Then, the return on that investment tells me how fast (or painfully slow) I get my investment back...and actually start to make money.I'm only interested in the cash on cash return, or cash flow, since both of those profit gauges tell me how much actual money I am making...now.This makes more cents (dollars) to me since my business model requires that I get all my cash back before the end of the year...most of the time back within a few months.

Lessons: 1) Everything takes longer than you think- just factor that in.2) Getting your part list down the first time is painful.  

If I take it sub to, do I need to wait until the modification has been approved before closing on it with an attorney and taking the deed because she wants me to take title asap due to chronic health reasons being in and out of the hospital.2.