I’ve been in the Marines for 18 years, mix of active duty and reserves.

Any contributions you make to the LLC in the form of capital contributions should be recorded as owner transfers and transactions should be limited to business expenses and activity only in order to maintain the liability protections.

How active do you want to be in REI?

However, I would love to find a mentor - someone who has done 100+ deals, knows the current market or is actively investing still that I can learn from and bounce questions off of.

The first pillar is avoiding unnecessary and risky activities (don't drink and drive, insurance generally won’t cover your poor decisions) and take good care of your investments - these simple steps will help you prevent lawsuits before they even occur.

But most investors I come across are busy professionals that may end up going for mediocre deals and more "active" work than they intended.

@Steve WintersA lot depends on your personal presence... in general (I’m assuming here) you’d want to be an active buy& hold investor.

I am finally at the point where I can afford (barely) to get into a multi-family home and I'm actively looking between Albany, NY up through Queensbury, NY - though preferably somewhere in the middle.

There are several active meetups in Montreal for Canadians that invest in the US.

I have not done mailers with any consistency, but when I was actively doing so periodically, what worked for me is driving for dollars.