I am also a newbie and have spent numerous of hours researching and learning before I took the big step.

A home inspector should be able to check wiring, plumbing, foundation, roof, raydon, among numerous other things.

I appealed the appraisers estimation of market rents, citing numerous listings from Craigslist showing that fair market rent was much higher than current rents.

@David Ward  Take a look at the Networking Events forum for a meeting tonight (Thursday, Jan. 19th) that you will find of value in numerous ways.

If you are an executive Costco Member, they have numerous lenders to choose from for only $275 loan fee!

Even if you assumed the same passive return for both options...15%...you would have to analyze and invest in numerous flips (say 15 or so) over the course of 7 years to get the same return as 1 longer term syndication investment. 

I listen to numerous real estate podcasts, including bigger pockets, and I have heard many "self help" or alacarte services that help landlords manage their properties themselves.

It has dramatically changed my late paying tenants to always on time tenants.There have been numerous other tips and tricks I've picked up over the past couple of months. 

;-)As you poke around this site, PLEASE check out the NUMEROUS pod casts.

After not being able to recruit any of the people I know and knowing I need others to keep me motivated to see this through (it's a idea I talk about, but never seem to have the motivation to just do it ) , I want to start a MeetUp/Facebook to start a local group in my area.I want it to be a group for local people to hopefully to pool together money and/or time, have almost a book group over the "The Book on Flipping House" (telling them to buy the book of course) and have way of introducing them BiggerPockets.So please tell me my idea is flawless and will lead numerous people and my self to the promise land right?