Other contractors that attend meetings and a ton of vendors at most monthly MAREI meetings that have their own list of referrable contractors - but most of these Vendors are not on BP, so you can't get any input from there here.For example - we have 7 different hard money lenders with a huge list of vendors they refer, 2 Title companies, a Cabinet Flooring Guy, 3 Property Managers, several wholesalers, and some companies that specialize in water and other damaged homes.Hope to see you at a future MAREI meeting.

What kind of advice would you offer to a young individual still in college, that wants to enter the real estate game? 

Exactly this example - selling agricultural and purchasing a multi family residential rental building.One limiting factor though is going to be that you will need to take title to the new property as the same taxpayer that owns the old property at least initially. 

Investing is a numbers game and if you don't have numbers, you can't calculate the investment. 

Sounds to me like you are either speaking with a local conservative bank, or a misinformed individual.If you want to "play the credit game", one simple option is to open a credit card or 2, but don't use it. 

This will put me at approx 26k for normal financing.So I asked him why is the closing cost so high and he responded:Bank fees are approximately three to $4000, transfer tax is 1% of the sales price, and title insurance is typically 1% of the sales price.Does this sound fair?

SS planning is a different game altogether.Contributing to SS was one of those possible "good reasons" I implied.

So long as you don't chase the market right to the top like a million dopes did in 2007, over lever, and have substantial short term financing in place, you are ahead of the game.  

That said, as someone who has done a few OF deals, the docs your attorney/title company will suggest you use depends on the type of owner financing: generic owner financing, land contract, lease purchase, etc. 

Has anyone had a success using the online auction system, and do you pay to do a title search for every bid, or do you do your own due diligence free free sources?