Buy it, fix it up, live there for at least a year to avoid capital gains tax and then flip it.

Obviously I am trying to avoid any penalties.

I would not do it, but I have a low tolerance for waiting in traffic, and do everything I can to avoid rush hour.

They want to each invest in two aspects of our buy and hold model.

I am willing to consider Section 8 tenants, but am trying to avoid these high crime areas.

I think a lot of people go into business either with a specific idea or with a hobby, not realizing that's one of the least important aspects of running a business.

Where things really get tricky is the financing aspect of our endeavors.

@Robert Leonard you may be right about not spending the time to get to the top, but utilizing time to learn things can actually accelerate your growth as it will help you avoid bad deals and have a better understanding of what it will take to meet your goal.

This will spread it out and will avoid triggering the requirement of a gift tax return.

They don't want someone suggesting they're not representing the banks to their fullest so - at least the two or 3 I've met down by me - seem to suggest that they avoid the conflict of interest by not representing investors as much as you'd think (I would want the double bubble myself but I could see where the bank might not like that).That being said, they seem to love to give their deals to other agents in their office and having that listing agent as the advocate back to the bank to come down on pricing seems to be a huge factor.I'll share this as to why I believe that.I've been investing for about 6 or 7 years now, and in that time I had only been able to get one REO out of 19 deals with my realtor.