One of my favorite principles is Hanlon's Razor- "Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence."

@Alan Olinger some of my favorite events in Houston include the Super Investor Meeting, REIAction, and the Real Estate Mixer at Armadillo Palace. 

My best advice for you is to continuously educate yourself, put yourself out there (as you are doing now), make connections and keep up with real estate trends.Here is a list of my favorite books so far (in no particular order):“Long Distance Real Estate investing” by David Greene “The book on Rental Property Investing” by Brandon Turner“The book on investing in real estate with no and low money down” by Brandon TurnerHope this helps!

by the lake, with a lake view, or looking at the side of a 2 story house next door, next to a nice well kept park or next to the drug dealer's favorite park.Zillow is not accurate for any specific property, but can give a general idea for cookie cutter houses.

Same goes for the financials - they're painted with rose color lenses.

Check out my personal favorite, Set For Life by @Scott Trench , or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. 3.

My favorite phrase - "Compared to what?"

My favorite source for a beginner is Every Landlord's Legal Guide by NOLO.

It's hard to read the writings on it, going by what I can see and the terracotta color.

While it looks impressive to a client.....probably 40 pages of data, color graphs, etc.....it usually is a product of “garbage in, garbage out”.Personally, I used a simple spreadsheet and compared the subject property to all the comps, adjusting for sf, pools, garages, etc.