You’ll hear radio pitches from gurus teaching no-money down real estate and the next commercial break it’s someone pitching day-trading.

@Michael Hill,I managed them myself for a number of years, but I'm local and a real estate agent/property manager by trade, so YMMV. 

The RTC is why Barry Sternlicht is a gajillionaire today, he scooped up huge numbers of properties at rock bottom prices.OP: I would have spent ALL my time buying distressed CRE debt because banks were giving the stuff away (I'm talking full recourse notes in non-judicial states were trading at 45% of UPB). 

A related downside I just learned is that while you don't receive any cash flow, you receive a tax liability because the cash flow that would have been distributed to the investor is used to pay down the loan principal.The more I learn about these products, it reinforces a no free lunch rule of the universe.I'd love to satisfy my debt obligation, take no cash return, have no tax liability and am willing to trade yield over time. 

Single family home prices swing a lot, and are entirely dependent on the market. 

If he wants to be productive and making money, any trade/business will want to get in, get out, and get paid. 

@Benjamin A Ersing I'm mostly in the northern part of the state, Cranston and north though I regularly look at things around West Warwick and Coventry.I can recommend folks for specific trades but I don't have any general contractors I can recommend as the few I know are either too busy in general or are focusing on their own projects right now.It's also been harder to get some folks out to do work these days because of the unemployment stimulus payments.

The only way you could possibly do that is for an even trade where it makes no money. 

All houses on these Avenues have side yards and they all trade.

That stuff has taken food of our trades table!