The investors doing a very large portion of the deals are professional in nature leaving lower risk of default or collapse. 

Naturally, I had to work with a real estate agent and someone that took care of my financing.

I'm looking for buy/hold property for rental income to supplement retirement income.

Laminates are man-made planks that are arranged to look like the natural hardwoods.

(For requests that are of a cosmetic nature and are not required, you'll just have to learn to say "no".) 

They don't care where the money comes from (except drug money etc naturally) they just want the full amount at closing.

Investing (markets/capitalism in general) is a natural process and the most efficient way to manage the supply and demand curve and the allocation of resources.

Syndicators are naturally wary of legal gray areas, so they will tend to follow this rule (the ones who do not may have other issues as well).

@Ryan WilliamsHey Ryan, I'm an asset manager for a global bank.I've worked as, and on behalf of, the largest institutional landlords as well as smaller private landlords.The natural path that you'll see is analyst -> associate -> asset manager, or something along that path.Mine was a bit different but nonetheless learned similar skills in underwriting, analyzing and strategically (re)positioning assets.

My relatives live in Orlando, and find it hard to buy appropriately based upon the high speculative nature of that market.