Here's Who Won the $3.46M Charity Auction for Lunch With Warren Buffett"The winner and up to seven friends can dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in midtown Manhattan.

I want to fix and flip properties at first, them buy and hold townhouses in Manhattan and Brooklyn for vacation rentals, and eventually invest in bigger projects from there.Any suggestions on how to get moving quickly from this extremely stressful situation and get started?

If this is in Manhattan or prime Brooklyn or Queens then I think this is probably as liberal as it gets.

After the S&L crisis you had guys buying stuff like retail properties next to NYU in the West Village of Manhattan (some of the priciest real estate on EARTH) at 10%+ cap rates despite buildings having a 30% vacancy rate. 

They meet every week at the 40/40 Club in Manhattan and usually have RE deals that get pitched.

I chose on-line but some learn better in class room settings. www.hgar.com is the realtor association that i use, they cover from the hudson valley where I live and work all the way to manhattan and bronx where you are from. http://www.hgar.com/education/You will find on-line or in-class education.

I am leaning towards New Jersey because I live in uptown Manhattan next to the GW bridge and i am currently being mentored by someone who flips in jersey as well.

From the article:A former Suffolk legislator, a Manhattan dominatrix and several other people were charged Wednesday in what Suffolk prosecutors said was a $50 million web of mortgage fraud that began in a Manhattan fetish club and ended with scores of pricey Southampton homes ownerless and in foreclosure.Article: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-liguld2612584998mar26,0,5408483.story :cool:

Add to that population is moving out of rural/suburban areas and into cites (where there is less available land at an already higher price and more building regulations) and you have a case of simple economics.That gets compounded yet again in dense/desirable cites (I live in Manhattan) where investment/ego purchases of luxury real estate displace other residents, push them to other neighborhoods, where they drive up prices. 

I'd like you to do a similar analysis of your backyards, Brooklyn and Manhattan.