IIRC fewer than 70 House seats are considered "competitive".The last time I saw Thomas Friedman interviewed he alluded to his next book, something along the lines of "Green is the new Red, White and Blue".

It has always amazed me at the belief that once someone hits a level in business that they feel they are allowed insane "perks".I worked in films/Hollywood for several years and saw this all the time.

It may not be able to replace my income by that time, but it'll be a start.I'd like to know what red flags I should look for as we go forward in developing a working relationship.

My long term goal has always been to do the Rich Dad Poor Dad idea of "converting 4 red houses into one green hotel" and trading all my single family homes into various big commercial syndications.

Depends on your amount of due diligence on the syndication, but when I hear 'guaranteed' returns the first thing I think of is a red flag.Why do you say it's guaranteed?

However, looking at the house further, we saw no sheer wall in the garage (which was a red flag #1) about the rest of the house. 

I didn't  know what a "proxy "bid is, and now I think I read that auction .com will do incremental bids for me at 20,000 a shot.

My problem was only with how it was presented to me at that seminar.. actually, now that I recall, they didn't even explicitly introduce what they were describing as an Illinois land trust; I had to research that for myself.

they are worse now than when I did one 20 years ago.  203Ks are a pain in the @$$ (take a long time to close, restrictive red tape, sellers generally hate them), BUT one thing to keep in mind is that its not a bad way for someone without renovation experience to start.  

Your yard might be smaller than you’re used to, and the dirt will be bright red.