AND, I firmly believe we're going to have a second dip of this one.

How does your firm handle this or do they even know that you are an investor?

Pick a growth area and buy just beyond where the expensive new businesses are going in, or where the community has firm plans to extend the sewer and water.

We work with a local firm, but the big boys have their advantages and good marketing material.

Bryan, there clearly were MAJOR PROBLEMS (to put it mildly) with the ratings agency industry - both on an individual firm level and an industry-wide level.Going forward, their ratings will contain more suspicion.

Chris is absolutely right.The asset management law firms changed in a lot of states.

On a side note I'm a pretty cheap date and have no problem living an extremely frugal lifestyle for several years while getting started.My basic options I'm considering are:1. getting some type of salaried position with an investment firm or something similar as an investment analyst and probably starting out around 40-50k and some benefits.2.

To corroborate what seems to be the majority's opinion, my firm uses Craigslist and yard signs with the most success.

Nick,I work for a wholesale investment firm in Memphis.

Hi,The first thing you need to do is make sure that you are working with a firm that can point to closed transactions that they have been apart of.To do that you will probably need to sign a NCND before they will give you any specifics.So...trust but verify.