It would be nice to live mortgage free, but a nest egg would also be nice.Any advice would be welcome!

No, but don't put all your eggs in that basket.

If they didn't do this they would be saddled with long term fixed rate loans and margins would eat them up.

They are too expensive and will eat up most of your monthly budget.Also look into creating a webpage to pull in leads.

I feel like I'm kind of in a chicken-or-the-egg scenario here.

I've read enough posts here now and soul searched myself to have this idea:It seems there's a lot of chicken and egg problems for new RE investors that are looking for experience and future private borrowing.Short version of my idea is put together 9 newbies and 1 pro, all BP members and do a few deals together to build experience and a track record.I'll spare you the details for now but the abbreviated version is $5k each into the pot.

You'll also find investors that may not be interested in buying another property for six months, you may not know that until you present a lead.Just as in your business, you don't want your leads resold, if a buyer rejects a lead, what does the birddog do with it, just eat it or move on to others.I agree the concept solves some issues with the license matters and settlements, but in reality that may be harder to do, fairly.

Question #1:Short answer:yes, usually.Longer answer:It depends upon the model that is being used.There are models, i.e. predictive tools that forecast various outcomes.Some models predict the likelihood to become 90+ Days Past Due (DPD), to declare bankruptcy in the next X moths, to open a retail credit card, to open a bank card, to open a premium bankcard, to revolve a balance, to pay down debt . . . . well, you get the picture.Most often closing a credit card does hurt one’s credit, i.e. depress a consumer’s score, because the credit card’s available credit is removed from the denominator (all credit available) that is used to calculate utilization, the mix of credit card changes (esp. negative if the credit card is a higher-end card), and one’s credit history is shortened (assuming the closed credit card has been open for some time).Question #2:The quickest way to increase one’s credit score is to use of the many outfits one sees advertised, i.e. credit repair, credit fix and one will usually see a quick bump.However, like eating candy when one is tired, one gets the sugar rush (the increased score) but there is always a crash (when the bureaus catch up to this questionable practice).

I definitely would not put all my eggs in one basket to better protect yourself 20-30% section 8 and the other 70% cash paying tenants is a good formula kudos to Frank Romine we are on the same page!!

We have had just about everything the past eight months has been critter wars, raccoon in the basement, chipmunks running through one apartment and squirrels eating the windows in another (eight new windows -oh well I was deciding if I should replace or restore the old wood windows and momma squirrel decided for us).