Walter,Here's a BP article on some practicals on finding a mentor:http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/04/16/finding-mentor-real-estate/Also, an article on basic [low cost, almost free] acquisition strategies that I've done or still do since I started:http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/04/23/acquisition-domination/Here's some books aren't specifically about real estate, but will enrich you as an investor and businessman.Think and Grow Rich:http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0304spiritpsych/030413.hill.think.and.grow.rich.pdfHow to win friends:http://erudition.mohit.tripod.com/_Influence_People.pdfRichest Man in Babylon:http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdfWould also recommend Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Workweek, Michael Ellsberg's The Education of Millionaires, and Who Moved My Cheese

I can still afford to buy beer and cheese curds in Wisconsin.

I've got a cottage on Lake Noquochoke.

I can take the whole $200K I have in savings and buy a small waterfront cottage to rent for 8-10 weeks a year or divy the bundle up by attending a bunch of tax lien and tax deed sales; or try to figure out how to safely get into wholesaling in Maine, even though I have no mentor and have been advised by a RE attorney that this doesn't work here anymore.

My family owns a cottage in the town next to it so its not to far for me I'm used to the drive.

Cheese curd capital.

@Javier De La Cruz cheese kingdom welcome aboard.Good luck with your investing in Illinois

For example, if all the buyers in your area seem to want brick ranch houses, don’t make your first purchase a split-level or a cottage.

*I don't know if this means that one could develop 6-8 units on a parcel that would other have a SFR on it*Then, I have seen parcels in the same neighborhoods that were developed many years ago and they will have multiple single-level "cottage"-like 1 bd/1 ba rentals on one lot (*all detached).

So for the longest time my family has had a 2BR cottage in Wisconsin as well as a plot of land.