The two of these sort of deals I'm in had a significant amount of paperwork, comparable to closing on a house, when the money actually changed hands.

Long term I'd like to buy and hold commercial properties in South Florida.I just came off of 2 back to back deployments with the US Navy during which I spent countless hours reading as many REI books and articles as I could get my hands on.

If you like their selection and feel that they are honest with you, they are a great lead for investors like me who decide to sell their properties for whatever reason, and can hand them over tenant in all.

Are you an old hand at REI?

If you can be successful at even a handful of flips per year, you would be in a position to potentially add that extra property per year to your portfolio.I think this is a great strategy to start out with.

Any suggestions and help would be appreciated.Back in the glory days of the nineties real estate agents would hand out keys for VA and HUD properties as they were all keyed alike...today (at least in Raleigh) you can't even get an agent to show you a house unless you sign a buyer rep agreement and are pre-qualified and blood-typed...

On the other hand, whoever built my house didn't think it was necessary to install flashing between the deck and the wood siding. 50 bucks worth of flashing would've prevented a lot of rot.

I know I can't wait to get my hands dirty on my next project!

Go to the public library, read everything you can get your hands on, save some money and buy a house.

I think you've always got to keep SOME liquidity on hand, and the amount you should keep on hand is usually a factor of the age of the property, it's cash flow, and how expensive (or inexpensive) the thing is to own in the first place.When I start getting excess liquidity, that's usually my sign that it's time to take a chunk of that cash and put it into another income producing property.