I didn't know if it was cool with you (Joshua) to post resources that weren't listed under the REI clubs area.1) Colorado Association of Real Estate Investorshttp://www.carei.comThis is a good resource (IMHO) for someone just getting started who wants to learn about the many different areas of REI.

Hello, everyone. I'm new here.

I'm 25 years old and I have about $250k in cash, and I want to put all of it into real estate.

I have no experience though. I'm just starting to learn the basics, like cap rates. ...

v=NAaBlKB4m8E&fmt=18One other cool thing...

If you like to "hope so and wait" type of person, choose stocks.Real estate on the other hand has all the benefits.Their values are like a slow moving train that youget to inspect, repair, rent, insure, buy 7 different ways,sell 7 different ways.You can see it coming (appreciate) and going (depreciate)in time enough to get on and get off and make a profitbefore, during, after, and all around.There is no comparison - real estate is the best hands downas long as you're competent(take all costs into consideration) and prepared(have the best support team).Sure yo can kind of be 'competent' and sort of 'prepared'in buying/selling stocks, but again, it is still a "hope so and wait" 'technique'.

Then, FM/FM decided they needed to leverage their position of power to get in on the same gravy train, and now the whole thing has collapsed.

Just a tip for those out there doing shortsales.

These days they sell programs training people to do just that.

Teach students how to pull bad comps, spend all their money on training and really how to make unsound decisions.

(Of course, if you try and fail, that might make a cool book worth reading, too!)

Also there's a small independent cashflow club in Mokena that actually does a cool job of taking live listings and practicing the game with them to see if/how they work.