There are two types of crooks on CL....local or cyber.  

I really believe this was a rare steal.

He steals credit card information and all the valuables he can get his bony little hands on.

It has become the perfect team, I steal them, he funds them,  we oversee renovations and I sell them staged.   

While these stratigies do make money, in my mind, it does not qualify as real estate investing, more like real estate stealing, but it is legal.

We had a deck built crooked.

He'll steal more tool!

I have the perfect unit on the market right now that I want to put an offer on and the price is a steal, so it won't last long.I would really appreciate any help in understanding this situation..thx

It varies wildly by how mature the contractor crew's business is.We've also had contractors steal materials, take draws and walk away, use our draw to pay for someone other project, or provide such poor quality work that we had to pay another crew to tear it out and start over.It's not all gloom and doom.

The idea that you can build wealth without putting any money into it is a recipe for disaster and the sales pitch of gurus trying to steal your money.