Be sure to read through The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing to help you get started.Finally -be sure to setup some keyword alerts - especially for "Bowling Green" so you can jump into local conversations.See you around the forums! 

The financial advisor will be able to set your maximum amount without crossing the MEC line.

My fingers are crossed something will develop where I can add value for my first deal.

Either way, be consistent with it and after a long enough time to honestly evaluate your marketing effort, either continue it or stop it, ie...green light/red light.

Make a list of the names you hear and keep cross-checking them with everyone you talk to.

The long and the short of it is, even within this investing environment, a small set of factors accounts for somewhere around 70-90% of the median price of US home markets: median household income, rental vacancy rate, population growth over the last 50 years, and physical obstruction (green belts, oceans, mountains, can be natural or manmade).

Now, you can try to strike that language (or use an addendum, to make it assignable) but any Realtor or agent - myself included - is going to look at that cross-eyed because that's pretty much stating you are not the ultimate end buyer.  

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Hopefully one day our paths cross and I can help you expand your marketing machine.I wish you all the best and your philosophy of helping others in order to get where you want to go is spot one.

Cross off Chicago and other markets with tough foreclosure laws.What about huge tax bills?