Steps: Sign up for a class, complete the online application with DBPR, sign up for background screening, complete class (DBPR has to clear you before you can test), take state exam, join brokerage, broker submits your application to state to join their firm, license becomes active (you cannot sell real estate until your license shows active with a brokerage), and then join Board of Realtors for your area. 

Hi everybody,I decided to make the big first step and engage on BiggerPockets.  

Will sit on this one a bit, and pursue other opportunities as they arise in the interim. 

This is probably a more complicated measure of seller financing because the real estate can be destroyed and the buyer would back out or the assets would appreciate significantly and the seller would request more money.In the above case - I guess the buyer could buy the rights to the income from the seller until he brought out 100% of the LLC.50 is still a young age - I was thinking they would benefit from deferring the gain as a result of inheritance and getting a step up of basis for their heirs.Sorry if I misunderstood your LLC scenario.

After reading I have a general understanding of what it involves but I am still unclear of the steps to get started. 

Any advice or pointers will be greatly appreciated as we make our first step into securing our first investment.

I think we need good investors to step in like @Geoff Neidenbach to start displacing the 'slum lords' that have allowed the neighborhoods to continue to operate in despair. 

I recognize there is tremendous risk in pursuing a development and lots of possible pitfalls, but we hit the jackpot with the location and to us represents once in a lifetime opportunity to remain owners in a prime parcel of urban city property that every person I have consulted with in real estate has agreed should be held on forever given its appreciation potential. 

So how do I go about "soliciting" money from someone without stepping over the lines?

I suppose you have been reporting the rental income and expenses(including depreciation) on your tax return.If you get paid in Italian currency - it is your job to convert the amounts in USD when reporting it on your return.If you hold the property in an entity(partnership or corporation) you may have additional informational forms to file with the IRS.If you have a bank account in Italy with a value over $10,000 - you also have an additional informational forms to file with the IRS.You should have been entitled to a step-up in basis upon inheritance.