But I will be astonished if anything changes - too many don't read closely enough, and even when they read their comprehension falls short ...It's not just BP members.

But that shouldn’t stop you from investigating thoroughly and deciding which one works for you.I firmly believe that practically ANY market has investment potential as long as YOU are properly educated to assess the opportunity.

Hi Kelly,The first step is assessing where you both are currently at financially and experience wise and where you want to go.You might want the money for a long term rental hold and the investor might want to do a hard money loan for a flip to make points and fees so they can get the money back out and grow it again.There are some investors who want cash flow and others who want fast growth churning the money over and over with  a value add project or loans etc.I have found the numbers are important but the missing piece I see over and over is the investor more than anything wants the relationship and to have the trust there with their capital.With both of you being inexperienced you definitely need an attorney helping with docs and what the possible structures might look like.

Let's say a fire breaks out on your property, are you really going to leave it to the property manager to assess the damage and call the insurance company?  

Just to rephrase some of it: 1) really know the market and really assess if you need to raise rent...

Hoping that displays by basic comprehension skills, I move onto my maniacal aspirations.Moving abroad to take a teaching position.

I am in the process of a cash out on a property I bought at auction last year and was told fees assessed by Fannie Mae for investment properties are going up for loans closed starting in September.  

I recently put together a comprehensive post on the RE investment options for non-accredited investors today - http://astudentoftherealestategame.com/passive-real-estate-investment-opportunities-for-non-accredited-investors/ 

The property is listed at $549,900 and it has been on the market for 1,176 days--it is also a foreclosure.The assessed value from the auditor's site is $290,000.Why the BIG discrepancy?

Any flip "properly assessed" should more than cover the $1000...I believe Josh or Brandon as well as numerous other including Kiyosaki have posts and books on why real estate out performs stocks.