I am in the military and I live in a small city with a population of fewer than 150K, there are no REI clubs and I am having a hard time finding a realtor that deals with investors.

Fewer banks do conventional loans 5-10, but some do.

Fewer tenants willing to move somewhere short-term only.

One understood that a time consuming learning curve was necessary for success in this field, that there were no shortcuts or instant riches.You need to start with the basics; real estate investing is only profitable in one of two ways, either you buy a property for less than it eventually is worth or the property you buy has a positive net income generated.

I'm not an attorney but generally speaking if the loan was originated by a broker there is no usury violation and if it's truly a non-consumer loan required disclosures are minimal.

At times it becomes a time consuming effort to deploy funds to a deal.I am setting up a QRP where the plan to be attached to my LLC and I could check book control control the IRA funds .Would like to get comments from some one who has done QRP or know about it.

Then someone has to pull the file for you. 30 days equates to about 200 files, so it's very time consuming and the court house workers will hate you.In addition, it takes the court houses in MA several weeks to scan all docs before they release the file to the public.

It's a pyramid - the more work something needs, the fewer people are willing to look closely.

Try not to buy off the MLS, it's too time consuming.  

We're primarily interested in a buy and hold strategy, and would love to find a good cashflow-generating multi-family rental to start out with, get our feet wet, and then hopefully expand.Management StrategyIn order to successfully manage an out-of-town property without tearing our hair out, we are considering a two-part strategy: first, we want a well cared-for property that will attract good people, generate fewer maintenance calls, and have less turnover.