I imagine some landlords would feel at ease if they knew their eviction expenses were covered in the worst case scenario.  

I am not sure how much the repairs would be for a 25-30K house but i can not imagine much.

That said, I'd imagine that at the right price and with the right insurance, some of those properties could work out long term for some investors?

For #5, note that there are nowadays "tech startup" solutions to financing one's primary residence (see Unison and Point.com), but the money comes from private institutions or private sources--the money is not "crowdfunded" for many reasons--in part, because there are a lot of strange privacy issues (imagine if your home was partially owned by 50 other people.

I can't imagine working real estate part time.

Tenants are crammed into apartment units, so it is quite difficult to imagine that rents can go much higher, and certainly not on the rent controlled buildings.    

But, I imagine that there are always a few of the "right" vacation rentals that always get filled.What qualities have you found, @John McRae, in North Conway vacation properties that still rent out in bad economic times like 2008?

, here you will find just about anything you can imagine REI related. how do you market your properties available for wholesale?

He wants to be the GC too, he doesn't have a license.I am having a meeting with these folks tomorrow, they are on fire ready to go flipping houses.Should I pour cold water on the dream or encourage them to do it???

I absorb written material far better than I do video/audio and they had the option of actual physical books (imagine that, lol!)