It is very late and I need to run, but I wanted to refer you to an article I wrote: Assembling Your Real Estate Investing Team.This should help you to get a better idea of who you want and need to have around.

It seems that there are bunch of graduates from some late night TV seminar that "list" notes and do not have relationships with any investors.

Hello John,It's never too late!

That is the type of person that I have been running into lately.

I can tell you sellers in our neighborhood have been reducing their asking prices lately, so that's not a good thing.

Is there any prepayment penalty if I finish in 3 months?

Btw, he has enough savings where he doesn't necessarily need the rental income this late in his life.

I started putting every extra nickel onto mortgages in the mid '80s, haven't had a mortgage since the late '90s, even on my personal residence.

It may cost a bit more - but you will probably get the job finished quicker and make a little more money than if you do all the work.

I was never a full time agent, I had a job that paid more than the average agent earned, I got mine strictly to get the "inside" during the HUGE foreclosures going on in Houston in the mid-late '80s.