Welcome Matthew w Sproule, there's lots of free great information and pod-casts forums and great help and guidance with how to run the numbers to make sure the deal(s) you do work well for your goals.

You can always ask questions on the forum.

also it would be great if someone can point me to other forums on how to convert a basement into an apartment with kitchen.I am also confused whether to go for vented vs ventless range hood or exhaust fan to deal with kitchen odors.appreciate the inputs from experienced forum members

Here are some good places to start:http://www.biggerpockets.com/meet - find and connect with other BP members that are in your area.http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts - Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you.And, of course thehttp://www.biggerpockets.com/forums - ask any question about real estate!

Hello,I have seen the creative side of the members within this forum so thought I would try and leverage all of the different ideas that are out there.

FYI, it looks like this was posted in the 'real estate investing summit' forum - you may want to repost under your local market.

I've never seen a more difficult way to pick a forum "topic".

Hello,I've been reading the forums/lots of REI books and listening to hundreds of BP podcasts over the last year, and I'm ready to jump in and start on my first deal. 

Our ultimate goal is to have around $1mil liquidity to be able to purchase our own land, build our own home, and still have a little bit of a buffer, while also having rental properties for our passive income.I know we could fairly quickly get to $1mil buy buying and selling but I wanted to know what you all thought about what a good roadmap might be regarding that (how many properties to buy and rent vs sell, etc).I have a friend who is very active in these forums who originally lived in Los Angeles and his first properties were basically in the ghetto of the middle of the US.Would a good route be to purchase apartments in the ghetto and be a slumlord for a while to launch our empire?

Part 2 of this question... the forums and podcasts always talk about keeping your W4 job to show the banks income stability.