I know in CA recent state laws designed to "protect the consumer" have made it nearly impossible for mortgage brokers to work with non-accredited trust deed investors thereby, in my view, releasing them to fall victim to real estate investors preying (wittingly or unwittingly) on the unsophisticated.

Could anyone to share with experience on this kind of investing and give an idea how long time it may consume to get in the field and see results?

I am looking for something that really gives a reasonably good cash-on-cash return yet is not too time consuming.

Some of the drainage pipe has been replaced to PVC, and majority (including the Stack) is still caste iron.

The problem is, the numbers aspect is just about where my knowledge ends -- if only RE investing were done on a spreadsheet and a telephone.It's pretty obvious that BP offers a very extensive resource, so I've taken the time to read all of the "newbie" articles, listen to each of the podcasts, and generally consumer about 90% of the information that you have on this site geared toward starting out, marketing, etc.

Same assumptions as above, the $80K loan payment of $480 consumes almost all of the $500 projected (back of the napkin using 50% rule) net cash flow prior to debt service.

I understand that a lot of investors don't want to deal with short sales due to the time & hassle involved. I know that banks take a long time to respond. That said, what else in the process causes a significan...

One time consuming chore is doing the payroll.

A red flag goes up if there is a complaint where money is pooled with multiple investors and the unsophisticated public is possibly being taken advantage of, they will take notice.Yeah I feel that for the most part the SEC stuff, and most consumer protection legislation, is more to allow attorneys to churn big fees since you basically have to do it in those situations.I guess what you are saying is what I was getting at where offering a single person a lien on a property in exchange for loan would not really be an SEC red flag if nobody complained about it.

@Elisha Keller ,Ironically, we just had a recent thread about this: Tax Deduction on Live In DuplexYes, it would be prorated between Schedule E and Schedule A based upon square footage.