Any who I recently came across a house that was involved in a massive house fire and requires about 175k worth of repair.

Im brand new to the forum and to real estate investing and have a question involving private lending.

Also to meet fellow real estate investors in the 860 area as well as nationally.My goal is to achieve financial freedom through real estate and hopefully in 5 years get involved in some commercial real estate.

We will definitely get a lawyer involved if we want to pursue this.

It's a great one because it's just a bunch of people, meeting at a coffee shop, who all share what they are involved with and working on and then people can ask questions and network with who they want.

If no realtors are involved you will save even more money and you can negotiate in real time which is much faster.

Between  having no agents involved, and the seller not having to spend more money to remodel, you might be able to get  a good deal. 

There are a lot easier methods to get ahead of the curve to buy properties, before bank pulls the rug out from under the owner and auction it off.

@Justin Y.If to you "tax shelter" means any method of reducing taxable income, then you may be focused on the wrong reason to invest in residential rental real estate.There are three advantages to investing in rental property:  Appreciation, Cash flow, and Tax benefits. 

However we are the number 1 seller in the greater Cleveland area so it has proven to be the most effective method on the planet to moving investment property in the Cleveland area.