Good luck with your RE venture! 

You sound like you're ready to get your feet wet in your first real estate venture! 

I would be happy to have newbies be involved in this as well (perhaps a joint venture).

I only have about 15-20k I can use to invest, so I need to figure out how to get creative financing.Maybe you could consider joint ventures with homeowners who don't want to sell to wholesalers but don't have the money to do repairs themselves.I don't mean major repairs but just optimizing the appeal for a retail buyer.Once you agree on an as-is price near what a wholesaler would offer you could lock it down with sales contract.Then a joint venture contract could be drawn up that protects both parties.You would not be looking for distress sales because the homeowner needs to be able to keep paying the mortgage and has to have enough funds to move out before the work is completed.You would have to be selective about the owner and be confident they can fully understand the process and that they can pull it off. 

I'm not familiar with the Florida market but I wouldn't expect wholesaling to be a worthwhile venture for you.

Now we're trying to "stop the bleeding"; then, we'll have to make up a lot of lost ground.In the meantime, we've both got chronic health conditions, so it's not just our ages.  

I didn't let this stop me, I immediately entered it in my pipeline and started tracking the deal on a weekly basis by setting follow up reminders in my calendar.

I have a great joint venture partner I plan to buy a property with, using a good private money lender I know.

It isn't going to stop me from reaching my goals just because the first property manager was bad.

It is a bit scary venturing into the world of real estate, especially with having to create your own network of contacts and relationships.