Hi all,Wanted to start out by saying thanks for some great info on here.First let me say I'm relatively new to real estate investing, and I come from a technical engineering background and am finding it VERY difficult to justify things I've been told to say by my coaches, because to me it feels like I'm manipulating instead of being straight forward and honest.

Working in a financial planning firm full time, holding my series 7, 66, life, accident, health, and NH real estate licenses.

and net worth is a relative term - you can have a million networth on paper but be broker than a bumb in the street.broke means, you have no liquid cash - that's bad. liquid cash or assets are simply easy to get to with no hassles.

But, as the housing market has drastically slowed over the past year (even in the face of relatively stable, lower interest rates) those sellers and their agents, who understand seller-carryback financing will make more sales!

My advice, go for the smaller projects and avoid the "home run" deals and build up some good relations with the various trades.

Go two counties to the west and you'll find plenty of $80,000 properties and relatively stagnant prices.

(FWIW, I live in a relatively big midwestern city...)Thanks for any input...

I talk to hundreds of investors every year who: [list]Have been thinking about investing Have been reading about investing Have a friend who had done well investing (The elusive friend) Are saving for a down payment Waiting for rates to go down Waiting to finish their real estate course Waiting for their mentor to tell them to buy Waiting for summer (insert any season) Waiting for the market to straighten out Waiting till they can afford it Waiting till they get a promotion Waiting till their friend or relative can partner with them Trying to read just one more book Waiting till they buy their own house Waiting till they get a raise Waiting to graduate from college Waiting till their friend or family member becomes a realtor Waiting to be married Waiting till they contribute their maximum to a 401k Waiting till they get done working on their own home [/list:u]Then after giving me their excuse for waiting they ask [list]What happens if the toilet gets clogged?

I hope this isn’t confusing, because we need some wisdom here…Any and all thoughts would be appreciated, as I feel we need to move on this relatively soon, esp because of the other houses we’re interested in.

Just a quickie related to my previous post.Are there any benefits to having a formal offer in writing, even if the seller verbally told the realtor our intended bid was unacceptable?