Spot on Bill!

If a friend can not be found locally, then a good mentor will save you a lot of money (even if it costs a little), but they should not stay with you, but direct you on how to improve your building at those leaky spots and maybe even return (after a while) to make sure you have not sprung any leaks eslewhere.But in my start I just went out and did without any help to prove to my brother that what he was thinking of could be done, but he did not need the GURU's supervision and "mentoring".I succeeded in getting started in investing this way and proved to myself that even us doers will at some point need to stop doing and READ to educate ourselves on how to stop those leaks or we will indeed fail as well.So wheather your start as "hands on" or "reading" , both will be needed to be done and I will add one more phase to prevent failure and that is the use of COMMON SENSE to know when to stop and get help (for us doers) or stop reading and get started (for the readers).Plus the use of that COMMON SENSE to look back and realize you have leaks or havent yet started instead of just continuing doing the do'ing or reading and not realizing that you are going down in flames.

You might find your sweet spot there.BTW, I used to live in Hoboken, great fun city.

Seems its a favorite hiding spot for peoples "little treasures".

The glue spots showed through and the sides looked pretty cheap.

Sometimes a concrete pad can be spot treated.

I use to keep up with most material costs and I'd do a walk through and estimate on the spot then double the material costs and that was close enough for light jobs.

In additon to roots, we had several "bellies" or low spots that would collect "stuff".

Once a guy approached me about my houses and I pulled out my ipad to show him what I had and we signed a contract on the spot...

In my experience, trying to buy short sales or at the courthouse can be a beating, especially in a competitive market.As with just about any business, the key is to find a way to connect directly with distressed home sellers where you aren't competing with every other investor or first time home buyer out there.There are a lot of ways to do this - post-it note canvasing, direct mail, TV advertising to zip codes ($25 - $50 per spot), targeted internet marketing, etc.