Set standards and if they do not fit those standards or come in line then do not conduct business with them.Just by what these investors were saying showed a quick buck at any cost and not doing things right.

I'm thrilled to see that many of the normal day-to-day activities that we carry out as real estate investors are portrayed correctly such as:- Evicting families from their homes at gunpoint- Hiring formerly evicted and desperate occupants to do dangerous and illegal work at low wage- Attending high end parties while the human collateral of immoral yet immensely profitable real estate decisions duke it out in the slums...Hopefully you can tell that I'm joking here and that I'm not very happy with what I perceive to be a very unfair portrayal of real estate investing, investors, and how real estate investing business is conducted. 

In my area, there is a percentage of winning bid that gets paid to the sheriff as a sort of commission (they call it poundage) for conducting the sale; the lower the bid the less must be paid, but if there is a third party buyer the bank wants to recover as much of the debt as they can get.

One of the ways we always test ourselves and make sure we have all the loose ends buttoned up and all the screws tightened is by encoring our investors to conduct 3rd party home inspections.

You have a contract to conduct the assignment.

IMO, internet relationships can be documented by email, phone calls and time, lending within say 30 days, is not developing a private relationship to conduct business, that is seeking business more over, but if you have discussed various topics, had personal or non-business communications, say over a year, then you may be able to claim and show a personal relationship was developed.Lending is not like investing in securities as an example, you can sit and make all your money day trading, that doesn't make you a stock broker, but when you make most or all of your money from lending, commercial or residential or consumer you are then a lender if you don't have that personal, prior relationship.

The proposed format will be as follows: 1.Welcome and property walk-thru: You are encouraged to conduct an informal room-by-room walk-thru and to check out the house 2.Education – Review how the property was located, financed, renovated, marketed and sold or rented.

Various industry trade groups retained the services of E&Y to conduct a study, which concluded that if 1031 Exchanges were to be eliminated GDP would drop by .8% (GDP has recently been hovering under 2%. 

Call past landlords and verify their payment and conduct history. make sure they have an acceptable debt to income ratio.

However, I would continue to learn the ins and outs and start conducting research in the city your next assignment is located.